ARTICULATING DIVIDES IN DISTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE PRACTICE

Abstract

Working together has always been a challenge but recent trends in who works with whom, on what, and across what regions, cultures, disciplines and time zones have conspired to increase the complexity of team work, and in particular the complexity of knowledge work and communication across knowledge divides. Drawing from literature and examples of practice obtained during research on distributed, collaborative teams, this paper examines constraints to collaborative practice. It is argued that crossing knowledge divides requires articulating often invisible, taken-for-granted knowledge-based asset specificities that constrain what is recognized and accepted as practice in the different fields or occupations involved in the collaboration. Different types of specificities are discussed as examples to stimulate recognition and articulation of distributions in practice. The paper then discusses ways of recognizing domain constraints on the way to articulating divides and achieving collaboration across distributions in knowledge, practice and technology.

Keywords:

• Interdisciplinarity
• distributed knowledge
• asset specificities
• collaboration

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Association of Internet Researchers conference (2003), and the International Communication Association (2004). The work was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant Can Knowledge Be Distributed? The Dynamics of Knowledge In Interdisciplinary Alliances (PI Bertram (Chip) Bruce; award no. 9980182). This work benefited greatly from participation in a working group on scientific collaboration supported by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA (Organizer: Ed Hackett). The findings do not necessarily reflect the views of these agencies. Special thanks are offered to Chip Bruce, Geoffrey Bowker and Karen Lunsford, and two anonymous reviewers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caroline Haythornthwaite

Caroline Haythornthwaite is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research examines how the Internet and computer media support and affect work, learning, and social interaction. Her research examines how information is exchanged, knowledge is shared and co-constructed, collaboration happens, and community forms. Studies have examined social networks of work and media use, the development and nature of community online, communication issues for new online learners, distributed knowledge processes, and the nature and constraints of interdisciplinary collaboration. Major publications include The Internet in Everyday Life (2002, edited with Barry Wellman); Learning, Culture and Community in Online Education: Research and Practice (2004, edited with Michelle M. Kazmer), a special issue of Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication on Computer-Mediated Collaborative Practices and Systems (2005), and the Handbook of E-Learning Research (2007, edited with Richard Andrews).