Open AccessInformal Communication in Collaboratories
Author(s) -
Luo Airong
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
proceedings of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Book series
eISSN - 1550-8390
pISSN - 0044-7870
ISBN - 1-59593-298-4
DOI - 10.1002/meet.14504301187
Subject(s) - work (physics) , affect (linguistics) , scientific communication , information and communications technology , knowledge management , public relations , engineering ethics , sociology , computer science , political science , engineering , world wide web , communication , mechanical engineering , library science
This study examines how collaboratories affect informal scientific communication. Collaboratories are virtual organizations, where various information technologies are adopted to support distributed scientific work. In this paper, a framework to understand factors affecting informal communication are presented and how these factors play out in collaboratories are discussed. The results of data analysis suggest that collaboratories bring about new opportunities, but there are also barriers to informal communication in collaboratories. Peripheral scientists encounter more barriers than their partners in US and Europe. The paper concludes with a discussion of areas for future research and implications of this study.