Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI)

By M. Ginsburg and S. Weisband, Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2004. Written in 2004, this article is somewhat dated (e.g. before the notion of the "social network" really took hold). That said, the article looks at a subscription-based virtual community, the Internet Chess Club, and finds that the real key to success is a carefully structured 3-tier approach to volunteering. Some volunteers help/coach new users; others are available to handle administrative tasks and volunteer managers run on-demand tournaments. Volunteers gain status and recognition, as well as the benefit of a private sub-community in which they can communicate with each other. NOTE: As of Jan 2012, the club is still in existence.

Librarian notes: While much here does not apply to the current manifestation of our e-communities, the structure and function of the various volunteer roles is very interesting, as is the "communication segmentation strategies" to filter out information overload. An impressive database of the community's work (in this case chess matches) is discussed as well.

By Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, First Monday, Vol 3(3), 2 March 1998. Nearly 14 years later, many of the impressions of and language about the Internet in this article seem quaint and outddated. However, the author offers the "cooking pot" model to explain how much content and code is shared for "free" on the Internet. In the Internet cook pot model, since physical proximity and distribution are not truly issues, the "pot" can grow (and be widely shared) by as much as people chose to put in it.

This article does not look at internet barter per se, but helps to explain how all the ideas around barter and trade look different on the internet than they might look in the physical world.

Manuel Lima presents on networks (vs. hierarchies) using visualization examples. On TheRSA.org, December 8, 2011

Published by Rita Kop on her blog, Jan 5 2012. Kop is working as a researcher looking at Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Personal Learning Environments (PLEs).  In this bibliography, she shared her recent research on the MOOC PLENK2012 (a MOOC about PLEs). 

A national center founded by (U.S.) Congress in 2011; funded by Dept of Ed, some start-up money, and foundation support.  The center looks at the possibilities that educational technology offers.  Much of the outreach work is done using Ideascale (see Grand Challenges and League tabs). See tag digital_promise for more. 

From the White House Briefing Room (website).  Release is not dated, but the URL is dated Sept 15 2011.  This release announces the details of Digital Promise, a national center. For additional information, follow tag digital_promise.

Posted by Clay Johnson, 10/25/2011 on ExpertLabs In the context of experts' conversations with government, the author of this post argues that tools such as IdeaScale, Google Moderator and UserVoice are useful for brainstorming but not the best method for a true dialog. These tools give government an excuse to "not" participate with people where they are. The comments on a government site, i.e. the dialogue on evolving data.gov (via IdeaScale) shouldn't replace "participating with practicitioners," which should happen where they are. (i.e. in a Jam, I.F.) Expert Labs aims to get more people involved in order to make policy better. Expert Labs publishes reports, constantly updates their blog and has developed a tool, ThinkUp, that enables users to automatically archive data and communications across Facebook, Twitter and Google+, encouraging engagement on these networks.

"ThinkUp is a free, open source web application that captures all your activity on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+"

"What is LIVING LAB? LIVING LAB is a research and development infrastructure to research human interaction with, and stimulate the adoption of, sustainable, smart and healthy innovations around the home. Occupant interaction with the home can be studied in an adaptable and controllable home environment. This way the technical development, the implementation and the social uptake of sustainable innovations can be accelerated. LIVING LAB brings together Europe's top research institutes and companies and aims to stimulate cooperative projects in the fields of user centred research and product development."

"About About the content of this website Welcome to the Open Living Lab Knowledge Centre. The knowledge centre contains a body of knowledge about the living lab methodology. But the Centre is also a community: we want to bring developers, researchers, and other stakeholders in the living lab field together to share knowledge and experiences. The website has the following purposes:"

If we are to achieve our goal of leading the world in education, we must be leaders in the design and implementation of a more effective education system. To that end, this plan calls for a new approach to R&D for education that focuses on four areas:

The National Education Research and Development Centers are funded through IES's NCER. The mission of the R&D Centers is to contribute to the production and dissemination of rigorous evidence and products that provide practical solutions to important education problems in the United States. The R&D Centers achieve this mission by developing, testing, and disseminating new approaches to improve teaching and learning, and ultimately, student achievement. Each of the Centers conducts a focused program of education research in its topic area. In addition, each Center works cooperatively with NCER, conducts supplemental research within its broad topic area, and provides national leadership in defining research and development directions within its topic area. Currently, there are 18 National R&D Centers.

by Jon Marcus on The Hechinger Report, December 26, 2011. Open University, a successful British online public university to be used as a model in the U.S. The goal is to help students who are intimidated by higher education adapt to and succeed in college. Next Generation Learning Challenges, a Gates funded initiative, will adapt two free Open University, at-your-own-pace online courses for use at about a dozen U.S. colleges and universities this academic year: one to help students be more comfortable with math so they do better on placement tests or move more quickly through remedial courses, and another to teach students skills to prepare them for college.

"World's largest private nutrition R&D network..."

"The "AI Commons" is a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change..." The site is hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management.

Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (Translating Leading Science into Clinical Candidates Through Networked Collaboration) is dedicated to the establishment of global partnerships between Academic Medical Centers and Pfizer to transform research and development through a focus on translational medicine.

By Rick Mullin on Chemical & Engineering News, June 13, 2011. Pfizer announced the third in its network of research partnerships with medical and academic institutions in and around Boston. The new partnership will join other hubs in Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) which launched last year. "Pfizer's partnership network is growing as the company cuts billions of dollars from its traditional research base"