Digital CoPs and Robbers: communities of practice and the use of digital artefacts

Abstract

Over the past decade, the volume of digital content created from artefacts in museum collections has grown exponentially but our understanding of its use has not kept pace with the speed of digitisation. A recent contraction in funding for mass digitisation and pressure to make digital artefacts not just accessible but also usable, has made the need for knowledge about how individuals interact with digital artefacts more pressing. Foregrounding the problem of how digital artefacts are actually used by various communities of practice (CoPs), this study describes a case study that employs qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the influence of CoPs and to deconstruct artefact usage. Findings suggest that CoPs have distinct ways of using artefacts which may be affected by shared learning styles and shared ways of addressing recurring problems. This has implications for how artefacts are digitised and how communities of producers and users interact around the artefact.

Keywords:

• digital
• artefact
• communities
• practice
• use
• methodology

Funding

The Digital CoPs and Robbers: Communities of Practice and the Transformation of Research project was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (project application AH/J013153/1), Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham), Digital Humanities Hub (University of Birmingham), RSC and Substrakt Ltd.

Notes on contributor

David Hopes is currently Director of Robert Burns Birthplace Museum (RBBM). Previously a Research Associate at the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester and a Research Fellow with the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. He has worked for over a decade as a curator on a number of high-profile museum projects including the initiative to build RBBM (2008–2011) and the creation of the Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA; 2006–2008).

Notes

1. For the purposes of this study, a digital artefact is defined as a digital representation of an item from a museum collection, an information package typically comprising multimedia file and metadata.

2. The digital supply chain describes the integrated set of activities involved in the production, delivery and end-use of digital artefacts.

3. Open educational resources are defined by OER Commons as ‘teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use’ JISC and HEA. ‘What are Open Educational Resources?’ (OERCommons 2013).

4. Code: Links between Things.

5. Code: Thinking about other Information.

6. Code: Links between Things.

7. Code: Thinking about other Information.

8. Code: Assessing Materials.

9. Code: Assessing Medium.

10. Code: Assessing Weight.

11. Code: Thinking about Dimensions.

12. Code: Assessing Materials.

13. Code: Identification.

14. Code: Assessing Weight.

15. A thought collective is ‘a community of persons mutually exchanging ideas or maintaining intellectual interaction’ (Sady 2001, 197).

16. Networks of practice are ‘people who work on a similar practice within the same institutional framework’ (Brown and Duguid 2001, 205) as opposed to CoPs who are ‘located in the same space and time’ (Lave 1991, 69).

17. Learning styles are defined by Stewart and Felicetti (1992, 15) as ‘educational conditions under which a student is most likely to learn’ and broadly describe natural or habitual preferences in learning situations.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: The Digital CoPs and Robbers: Communities of Practice and the Transformation of Research project was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (project application AH/J013153/1), Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham), Digital Humanities Hub (University of Birmingham), RSC and Substrakt Ltd.