Virtual Communities: Virtual Communities: Catalysts for Advancing Catalysts for Advancing

ScholarshipScholarship

Module 7: Libraries and Collaborative Research CommunitiesDigital Libraries à la Carte 2009

John Butler <j-butl@umn.edu>Associate University Librarian for Information Technology

University of Minnesota, USA

OutlineOutlineVirtual Communities – some definitionsScholarly Practices as Context for Virtual Community

DevelopmentReal-Life Virtual Communities

◦ precursors◦ HarvestChoice◦ EthicShare

Governance & SustainabilityVCs – Library Roles and Success Factors

Virtual Communities DefinedVirtual Communities DefinedVirtual Communities (VCs)Virtual Research Environments (VREs)Virtual Organizations (VOs)Virtual Organizations as Socio-technical Systems

(VOSS)Collaboratoriesetc.

Virtual Organizations Virtual Organizations (U.S. NSF)(U.S. NSF)A virtual organization is a group of individuals whose members and resources may be dispersed geographically, yet who function as a coherent unit through the use of cyberinfrastructure.

Distributed across space,

Distributed across time, Dynamic structures and

processes, at every stage of the organizational lifecycle,

Computationally enabled, via collaboration support systems, and

Computationally enhanced

Virtual Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems   (VOSS) -- NSF http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2009/nsf09540/nsf09540.htm

Virtual Organization as Process*Virtual Organization as Process*

1. Relationships with a broad range of potential partners

2. Mobility and responsiveness of telecommunications to overcome problems of distance

3. Timing, using responsiveness and availability to decide between alternatives

4. Trust between actors separated in space for virtual organization to be effective

Source: “Virtual Organization as Process: Integrating Cognitive and Social Structure Across Time and Space”Scott M. Preston

Whatever the name, Whatever the name, what are they really about?what are they really about?

The Scholarship

Scholarly Practices as Context Scholarly Practices as Context for VC Developmentfor VC Development

Faculty & Graduate Students Behaviors Methodologies Perceptions Challenges

Two phases: humanities & social sciences; sciences (physical, natural, life, health sciences communities):http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellonhttp://www.lib.umn.edu/about/scieval

Assessment ContextAssessment ContextGoal: Support the advancement of scholarship

through understanding scholarly behavior, processes, and practices; then developing content & services that existing and new processes.

Distributed context for scholarshipDistributed environment for content and services Focus on the research processesUnderstand trajectory of research behaviors

Analytical FrameworkAnalytical FrameworkCategorize behaviors & identify “primitives”

(Capture the processes, workflow)Analyze behavioral data, trends, relationshipsIdentify potential tools/new servicesPrototype tools/services; solicit scholar

feedback (iterative, release-feedback process)

Discover

Share Gather

Create

Primitives

University of Minnesota. “A Multi-Dimensional Framework for Academic Support (2005-2007)”http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon

Primitives => Behaviors

Collecting

Organizing

Discover

Share Gather

Create

Serendipitous Finding

Collaborative Finding

Structured Finding

Keeping Current

Acquiring

Annotating

AnalyzingReviewing

& Rating

Writing

Describing

Publishing

Teaching

Data Sharing

Rights

University of Minnesota. “A Multi-Dimensional Framework for Academic Support (2005-2007)”http://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon

Primitives => Behaviors => DaTa

Collecting

Organizing

Discover

Share Gather

Create

Serendipitous Finding

Collaborative Finding

Structured Finding

Keeping Current

Acquiring

Annotating

AnalyzingReviewing

& Rating

Writing

Describing

Publishing

Teaching

Data Sharing

Rights

Researcher’s Workflow

Individual reputation management

Institutional Research Output and Assessment

Real-Life Virtual CommunitiesReal-Life Virtual Communities(+ precursors)

• Began 1991

• Rapid dissemination, open access

• Pre-prints physics, astronomy, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear science, quantitative biology and statistics

• Over 550K submissions to date; 50K/month

• Large-scale worldwide participation

• Facing economic challenges

•Since 1995, sustained

• Open access, pre-print archive for agricultural and applied economics

• 35K submissions from over 150 academic institutions, professional societies, and government agencies worldwide

VC CharacteristicsVC CharacteristicsDiscipline/field focused

Sustained

Multi-institutional, global

Adoption at significant levels

Community contribution / investment

HarvestChoiceHarvestChoice

HarvestChoice HarvestChoice Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Large-scale global project that supports the food policy analyst community

Compiles, harmonizes, generates, and disseminates public goods information on the potential payoffs to smallholder farmers of production and marketing innovations in sub-Saharan Africa

Libraries role Libraries role in in HarvestChoiceHarvestChoice VC Development VC Development

To build an innovative, integrated “biblio-spatial” search capability that blends the discovery spatial data, flat files and curated references to relevant scholarly literature.

• Highly selective discovery base for food policy analysts seeking improvements in third world countries

• Unique aggregation and integrations (“bibliospatial” search)

HarvestChoice Google Map QueryInterface: Household Attributes

HarvestChoice Database Query Widget:Crop Production Reporting Tool

Adaptive Hypermedia 200831

EthicShareEthicShareA Collaborative Virtual Community for Ethics Scholars

Adaptive Hypermedia 200832

• Online research environment for information discovery and collaboration for practical ethics scholars and students

• Open & free to all – designed to enable multi-institutional collaboration between all scholars regardless of affiliation, but account creation is not restricted

• Developed by the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, Libraries, and Department of Computer Science & Engineering

• Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation, Council on Library and Information Resources

Adaptive Hypermedia 200833

EthicShare PartnershipsEthicShare PartnershipsData:

• National Library of Medicine - PubMed & Catalog data

• OCLC – WorldCat data• Other Publishers – in negotiations

Web Services: • OCLC – Registry Services

University Centers: • Georgetown University – Bioethics Thesaurus• Governance and Presentations at Societies by

partners from: University of Virginia, Indiana University-Bloomington, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis and Stanford University

Adaptive Hypermedia 200834

Bioethics CommunityBioethics Community Engaged in “…consideration of issues in human values as they

relate to health services, the education of healthcare professionals and research.”

-- American Society for Bioethics and Humanities

The Cycle of Assessment The Cycle of Assessment Assess…Develop…Engage…AgainAssess…Develop…Engage…Again

Specify

Engage/Evaluate

Assess

Develop

Initial Community AssessmentInitial Community AssessmentPlanning Grant:

• Identifying and tuning collaborative technologies for a specific community of researchers

• Held 5 site visits – • U of Minnesota• University of Indiana• University of Indiana – Purdue University – Indianapolis• University of Virginia• Georgetown University

• “How do you know what you don’t know?” Bioethics scholars didn’t use collective work sites or technologies.

Adaptive Hypermedia 200839

High quality (selective/filtered) content; mixing scholarly and popular sources

Access to all relevant material types (full text), from all academic fields (highly interdisciplinary)

Ability to have private work space

Space for (global) community discussion, exchange, commentary

Reputation security; “trust controls”

Community Requirements(Defined through focus groups, surveys)

RequirementsRequirements

Community• Emerging field

• Unique content requirements

• Scholarly networking interests, but…

• Legacy humanists practices

• High value on trust and reputation

Sponsor• Advance scholarship

• Collaborative technologies

EthicShare Abstracted:Virtual Research Environment Components

Collection DevelopmentContent selection & aggregationHarvestingIngestETL

CONTENT

Discovery Tools

Faceted searchingTags and ontologyRecommendations

Drupal, SolrACCESS

Policy & SustainabilityEditorial policies

Community valueUser privacy

Intellectual Property

GOVERNANCEEngagement & CollaborationSocial dynamicsEditorial participationDrupal

COMMUNITY

ethicshare.org

EthicShare Site Functionality EthicShare Site Functionality – Data• Search

• Community-defined aggregation of content• Faceted results (to include all EthicShare data)• Link to full-text through your OpenURL resolver• 500K records (diverse sourcing)

• Save, organize, export citations

• Contribute content to the database• Find information about upcoming events,

deadlines, news, etc...

EthicShare Site Functionality EthicShare Site Functionality –

Personal and Group• Review your online activity

• Search history• Recently viewed citations• Make lists, recommendations

• Tag citations – personal and community

• Join or create groups • private or public• to share citations, discuss ideas, upload files, and work collaboratively

• User Directory and Profiles

My

Ethi

cSha

re –

M

y Et

hicS

hare

– P

erso

nal V

iew

Intelligent Linking

Group Posting

Tagging

Link Resolver RegistryLink Resolver Registry

Intelligent Linking ServiceIntelligent Linking Service• Link Resolution – delivering an OpenURL linking

service in a multi-institutional context, which allows users from any institution with a link resolver to access the full text of a resources (if their institution provides access to that resource).

Visitors from over 900 institutions

Groups I belong to

Privacy SettingEthi

cSha

re G

roup

sEt

hicS

hare

Gro

ups

Usage Pattern Matching Usage Pattern Matching – – “Recommendations”“Recommendations”

Community-tailored ServicesData Aggregation for Discovery

Aggregation and Service Architecture

Automated ETL ProcessAutomated ETL Process

Drupal Modules used in EthicShareDrupal Modules used in EthicShare

Drupal – “Community Plumbing”Drupal – “Community Plumbing”

Engage and Evaluate - Iterative DesignBeta Testing - Feedback Loops

Iterative Usability AnalysesIterative Usability Analyses

Adoption Evidence• Account Creation– open to all – the site is designed

to enable collaboration between all scholars regardless of affiliation, but account creation is not restricted

Technology Adoption

Source: Sociological model developed by Joe M. Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers, later modified by Geoffrey Moore.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Motivating Community Contribution Collective Effort Modelo People will contribute more if:

They believe their effort is important to the group

They like the group

Smaller is Bettero Slovic, Fischhoff, & Lichtenstein,

1980o People feel greater concern when

the reference group they’re part of grows smaller.

Specificity Matterso Small & Loewenstein, 2003o Specific identity of those helped is

important in drawing people’s support.

Publishing, Access, and Dissemination:• Capture of community’s fugitive content; user submissions• Gray literature contributions• Digital collections (OAI-harvests), video/audio, art objects• Curricular Materials/ Learning Objects

Site Features:• Recommenders • Bioethics policy development support

Five-Year Sustainability Plan

Release the VRC Technology Stack and Development Model

EthicShare … the futureEthicShare … the future

?ScholarImagesVideoBooksNewsDataKnolWhat’s next…

Future EthicShare Architecture?Data Aggregation

for DiscoveryCommunity-tailored Services

Governance & SustainabilityGovernance & Sustainability

Who “owns,” builds, runs, and sustains a VC?

Producers

• Sponsors• Mellon Found., NSF, CLIR• Univ. Libraries

•Development Team• tech. (lib.)• content (lib.)• research (CSci)• domain (ethics)

• Partners• OCLC• NLM

Consumers / Community

• EthicShare User Base

• Professional Societies

• User Advisory Panel• faculty and graduate stud.

• EthicShare Users• large-scale feedback

Governance• Principal Investigators – Lib Director, CSci Professor, Ethics Director• Governance Board

• Senior Fac./ Center Dir. from 6 U.S. ethics research centers.

Sustainability – Economic FrameworkEconomically sustainable academic resources

require:

Recognition of benefits Incentives for decision-makers to act Selection Efficiency Appropriate organization and governance

-- Brian Lavoie (Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access)

Library Role in Virtual Library Role in Virtual CommunitiesCommunities

Functional Roles“Communities of practice” assessment and

effective research environment design Content selection and accessPreservation of community assetsTool development, calibration, and integrationCatalyst for collaboration

VC Critical Success FactorsVC Critical Success FactorsDiscipline/field focused

Sustained

Multi-institutional, global (hopefully)

Adoption via value impact

Community contribution/investment◦ Intellectual◦ Collegial

Sustainable Model◦ Governance◦ Economic◦ Technology

Partnerships

Builds / leverages scholarly collaboration and exchange

Scale of everything◦ network effect◦ data leveraging potentials

Virtual Communities: Virtual Communities: Catalysts for Advancing Catalysts for Advancing

ScholarshipScholarship

Module 7: Libraries and Collaborative Research CommunitiesDigital Libraries à la Carte 2009

John Butler <j-butl@umn.edu>Associate University Librarian for Information Technology

University of Minnesota, USA