Collaborative Information Behavior in Completely Online Groups

This chapter situates collaborative information behavior in completely online groups as a phenomenon distinct from prior work understanding collaborative information behavior in face-to-face groups, free and open source software groups and Wikipedia groups. The unexpected diversity of information resources utilized by completely online group members is analyzed through Sonnenwald’s Information Horizons theory. Information practices of completely online group members are described, and the key themes of groups as information resources, the influence of tool change on collaborative information behavior online, and the focusing potential of collaborative information tools for completely online group work are explicated. Future research directions that explore the potential of COGs for distributed innovation; new types of collaborative information behavior and breaking down the digital divide are reviewed.

Collaborative Information Behavior

Collaborative information behavior is an important and growing area of research in the field of information behavior. Although collaboration is a key component of work in organizational and other settings, most research has primarily focused on individual information behavior and not the collaborative aspects of information behavior. Consequently, there is a pressing need to understand both the conceptual features of this type of behavior and the technical approaches to support these collaborative activities. In this chapter, the authors describe current research in this area and what we are learning about collaboration and coordination during these activities. In particular, the authors present details of ethnographic field studies that are starting to uncover the characteristics of collaborative information behavior. They also discuss a preliminary collaborative information behavior model and some technical explorations that they are conducting in this space.

Contributors and Lurkers

The long-term sustainability of online communities depends on the active participation and contribution of its members, but we have limited knowledge about why individuals do not post and how online communities can differ. This chapter presents an exploratory case study of contribution rates and lurking in a professional international online community that focuses on architecture and design in the Islamic world. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the community and the lurking behavior of its members. Using a web-based survey and log files, it asked three primary questions: Who contributes? Where do they contribute? And what reasons do members give for not contributing?

Living with New Media Technology

This chapter considers the collective information behavior of the poor in Bangladesh. It examines the mobile phone as the central node and seeks to understand the construction of collectiveness by examining the collective-mediated learning, sharing and experimenting among the poor. Three brief cases provide the background and illustrate the elements of a Learn, Share and Experiment model. Against this tapestry of multiple perspectives, collective-mediated learning, sharing and experimenting enable the poor to be cost-efficient and socially productive. In conclusion there is an urgent need for all researchers to reexamine and rethink the poor’s collective information behavior as new media technology spreads deeper into their lives. Without it, we may miss the opportunity to discover something useful that will eventually lift them out of poverty.

Cultivating the Value of Networked Individuals

The Internet and related digital networking platforms facilitate searches for information and the sharing of information and expertise among individuals. In recent years, these behaviours evolved from focusing on information retrieval and sharing to include facilitation and coordination of collaborative problem-solving efforts and distributed co-creation of services and products. Such collaborations, supported by digital networks, often extend beyond the traditional boundaries of organizations and institutions, the social networks of small groups, the subjects of specific disciplines, and the geographic borders of nations. Consequently, they raise concerns over how to best manage networked individuals and realize the potential utility of their activities. This chapter builds on the findings of a series of case studies designed to explore such questions. From the results of these case studies the authors propose a framework for categorizing ‘Collaborative Network Organizations’ (CNOs); one that suggests that value emerges as a result of cultivating particular kinds of relationships and activities within these networks. The authors employ the term ‘cultivation’, instead of management, as the case studies indicated that such efforts often fail if managed too precisely or too restrictively in a “top-down” fashion. Instead, the provision of greater latitude and “bottom-up” autonomy to the individuals involved characterized the more successful CNOs we studied. In addition, the success of CNOs depended on how such efforts reconfigured information and communication flows in ways that supported distributed sharing, generation, or co-creation of content within a wide variety of collaborative contexts, ranging from the conduct of scientific research to problem-solving in business and everyday life. Directly attempting to manage or control CNOs can undermine these networks, whereas indirectly influencing and cultivating desired behaviours and activities can encourage the expansion of productive networking. The authors offer this theoretical framework as a means for better capturing the mechanisms governing collaborative behaviour.

Designs for Systems to Support Collaborative Information Behavior

Designing systems that support collaborative information behavior (CIB) pose many unique challenges that single-user systems typically do not face. This chapter attempts to take the reader through a variety of notions, design principles, and instantiations of CIB systems. Requirements and guidelines for a good CIB system are provided based on various research studies and projects done in different domains. It is pointed out that in the information seeking field, control, communication, and awareness are some of the most critical aspects of a CIB system that caters to multi-user and multi-session collaborative projects. Several actual implementations of CIB systems are described, and suggestions for designing a successful CIB system are presented.

Collaboration as Co-Constructed Discourse

This chapter presents a coding guide for the analysis of peer talk during educational information seeking. The guide is an outcome of a structuring content analysis of learners’ dialogues as they seek, evaluate, and use information on a collaborative basis. The analysis is informed by a language-based theory of learning and the sequential organization of spoken discourse. The generic steps of a structuring content analysis are described first; before each step, sequence, exchange, and move type identified in the dialogues are described. Illustrative examples of each unit and type of talk are provided, so as to aid in the precise and reliable assignment of the categories and codes in further studies. The chapter concludes with implications of the coding guide, and the broader study of which it is a part, for research in educational information seeking.

It Was Only Natural

This chapter describes the cross-disciplinary conceptual frameworks used to examine a popular American entertainment website that employs a virtual newsroom utilizing instant messaging as its primary means of communication. This computer-mediated communication reconfigures the standard place-based newsroom arrangements and significantly influences the group’s organizational dynamics and culture. Because of the distinctive content and unconventional organizational structure of this site, no single theoretical perspective can be applied to its organizational context and content. Therefore a combination of organization theory (Schein, 2004), and newsroom sociology theoretical frameworks articulates an emerging dynamic represented by such a medium’s evolution from hierarchical to networked organization. This chapter exemplifies the potential for new media researchers to adopt a cross-disciplinary approach to their analysis. As old models for understanding media cease to support the complex structures of new organizations we must look to other frameworks for additional guidance.

Sharing Information about the Pain

The chapter presents findings from recent studies that feature a model of doctor-patient collaboration called Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA), a research methodology that engages patient-participants in sharing their life stories on video, communicating their concerns and teaching their doctors what it means to live with a chronic illness. Patients are collaborators in creating a comprehensive understanding of illness that expands the medical community’s definition of disease. This chapter focuses on visual narratives made by young patients with Cystic Fibrosis and Spina Bifida as they experience their transitions from pediatric to adult-oriented medicine care. Collaboration in research facilitates more effective ownership of and accountability for their illness, facilitating adherence to treatment plans and improved quality of life. Our chapter concludes with an evaluation of the pros and cons of VIA as a collaborative information methodology.

Why Do We Need to Share Information?

In order to study collaborative information behaviour (e.g. information search, creation, and sharing) in the work environment, it is important that we take into consideration its embedded nature in collaborative work, however not many studies have actually taken this into consideration. In conducting fieldwork, we studied group task management in the work of IT product hardware designers. The study shows how understanding the details of information activities embedded in task management allowed us to generate some ideas for transforming task management into a more collaborative activity, and for reembedding task management more thoroughly into their work practices together with the practitioners. The paper discusses how taking an ethnomethodological approach can be fruitful for researchers who want to gain a close understanding of actual collaborative information activities and their embedded nature in work, and how understandings of this kind can be important for developing ideas for transforming practice, both with or without the introduction of technology.