Health Practitioner Perceptions of using a Health Virtual Community of Practice for their Continuing Professional Development

Health practitioner (HP) use of online social networks for learning and knowledge sharing has increased in the past decade, leading to the evolution of virtual communities of practice (VCoP). However, there is limited research on VCoP use for HPs’ continuing professional development (CPD) as a legitimate means of learning and sharing knowledge with their peers from a tools perspective. This paper continues our previous work about design and role considerations to explore HPs’ perceptions of using a VCoP for CPD purposes and reports qualitative study findings from two focus groups conducted with 12 HPs in each group. Our findings suggest that our design and role considerations are important when designing a sustainable Health VCoP for CPD. We identify a new design construct (Patient Information Anonymisation) that extends our conceptual model, and make theoretical and practical contributions that extend the Health VCoP literature

Blogs: On the Cutting Edge of the Next-generation Web

This article analyses a number of social and cultural aspects of the blog phenomenon with the methodological aid of a complexity model, the New Techno-social Environment (hereinafter also referred to by its Spanish acronym, NET, or Nuevo Entorno Tecnosocial) together with the socio-technical approach of the two blogologist authors. Both authors are researchers interested in the new reality of the Digital Universal Network (DUN). After a review of some basic definitions, the article moves on to highlight some key characteristics of an emerging blog culture and relates them to the properties of the NET. Then, after a brief practical parenthesis for people entering the blogosphere for the first time, we present some reflections on blogs as an evolution of virtual communities and on the changes experienced by the inhabitants of the infocity emerging from within the NET. The article concludes with a somewhat disturbing question; whether among these changes there might not be a gradual transformation of the structure and form of human intelligence

Quantifying the skewed distribution of activity in virtual communities within a longitudinal study

Virtual Communities (ViCs) are subject of interest for quite some time now [Hagel and Armstrong, 1997, Garton, et al., 1997, Rheingold, 1993]. Recently, ViCs in the form of Social Network Services like MySpace or StudiVz received a lot of attention. Though, fairly little is known about the temporal evolution of virtual communities and the changes in the communication activity of its users. The research described here is an explorative study examining the communication activity of members of two virtual communities on a longitudinal basis. For that purpose, a graph theoretical model by Pennock et al. [2002] is used which unites “Random Network Theory” and “Scale-free Networks”. This model allows the operationalization of the empirical distribution functions of the communication activity in ViCs with only one free parameter. That parameter – the mixing factor α – represents the ratio between the antagonists heterogeneity and homogeneity. The nonlinear curve fitting of the empirical distribution functions shows a predominance of preferential over uniform binding in both communities. Participants prefer to communicate with community members having already a lot of communication partners, while members with low activity are less attractive. This phenomenon is less strong in the smaller ViC B. The members of ViC B have almost twice as many connections as those of ViC A. ViC B represent a tighter network which might lead to the more homogeneous distribution of its activity. In both communities the mixing factor α and therefore the level of heterogeneity shows quite stable over time

Emerging Web-Based Knowledge-Bases: Categories, Trends and Implications for the IS Research Community

The number of electronic knowledge bases on the world wide web is exploding. Organizations and individuals are investing time and resources to build and maintain knowledge bases. However, they have currently have minimal guidance in this effort. Identifying the underlying characteristics of existing knowledge bases and different paths they take for the creation, synthesis and organization of knowledge, is the first step towards determining the best model for designing knowledge bases in the future. In this paper we present an analysis of electronic knowledge bases which have a presence on the WWW and are related to information technology. This work is a preliminary effort in the development of a knowledge base design theory. A total of 38 such knowledge bases were identified and then categorized along two dimensions: Mode of Interaction and Approach for Knowledge Organization . The results show that the majority of current knowledge bases focus on low levels of interaction and give little thought to the organization of their knowledge. At the same time, several knowledge bases with innovative approaches are identified. Taken together, they can serve as models for building more effective web-based knowledge bases which not only capture and disseminate knowledge but leverage information technology to improve the process of knowledge creatio

Conceptual models for the creation and development of virtual communities: A contribution to the state-of-the-art

Nowadays, virtual communities are present in all social segments. Unlike business, the presence of virtual communities in education contexts is still in the process of implementation and acceptance by a large part of the school community. To understand their dynamics and functioning is not a simple task. For its proper functioning it implies that some elements work in perfect harmony and are able to encourage spaces with multiple learning possibilities. Therefore, this paper aims at presenting some models that try to explain the process of creation and development of virtual communities. We believe that these models may work as guidelines that might help us to better understand the concepts of interaction, collaboration, e-moderation and collaborative learning.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Human - computer interactions and user interfaces for remote control of manufacturing systems

Rad prikazuje novi pristup unapređenju tradicionalnog daljinskog upravljanja u proizvodnim sistemima zasnovan na obezbeđenju funkcionalnosti pragmatičnog nivoa komunikacionih kanala. Korišćenje raznovrsnih pristupa i metodologija, poput video konferencije, računarski podržanog kooperativnog rada, virtuelne stvarnosti, alata drugih virtuelnih okruženja, kao što su "Metaverse" internet veb pragmatični alati, je neophodno u cilju prevazilaženja problema prostorne barijere. Stoga je dalja analiza korisničkog interfejsa čovek-mašina presudna za interakciju korisnika sa proizvodnim sistemom preko daljinskog upravljanja unutar postavljenih okvira. U ovom radu su prikazani preliminarni rezultati evaluacije dva tipa korišćenih interfejsa, koji se naročito razlikuju sa prezentacionog aspekta, dok su funkcionalnosti daljinskog upravljanja iste za oba tipa interfejsa. Rezultati analize ocena korisnika, pokazuju da je jedan interfejs sa aspekta korisnika, ocenjen nivoima različitih faktora, bolje od drugog.This paper refers to the new direction for enhancement in traditional remote controlling functionality in manufacturing systems. Employing a diversity of tools such as videoconferencing, computer supported cooperative work tools, immersive virtual reality, virtual environment tools, such as "Metaverse" tools, and Internet through Pragmatic Web, is necessary for overcoming the "space barrier". Therefore, further analysis of human-machine user interface is crucial for user interaction with manufacturing systems through remote control. That is the motivation for investigation on evaluation of the user interfaces for remote control of manufacturing systems within the above-mentioned framework. Preliminary results of the evaluation of two types of interfaces are presented in this paper. These two interfaces are distinctive in one particular presentational aspect, while all the remote controlling functionalities are equal for both. The results show that one user interface type clearly fares better than the other over a number of factors as graded by users

Representational fidelity in distributed and remote lab environment

Studentima danas nedostaju realna iskustva o kompleksnim tehničkim konceptima uprkos činjenici da industrija, kao primarni korisnik, stalno ukazuje akademskoj zajednici na potrebu i značaj realnog praktičnog iskustva. Naš odgovor na to je kreiranje i testiranje Distribuirane daljinski upravljane laboratorije posvećene aktivnom učenju. U ovom istraživanju, sprovedeni su eksperimenti o reprezentativnoj tačnosti za dva tipa korisničkih interfejsa (Wall and Window) sa dva vida prezentacije (na desktop računaru i putem video bima). Predložen sistem daljinskog upravljanja omogućio je studentima iz Beograda, Srbije dinamičku interakciju sa realnim proizvodnim procesom u laboratoriji u Minju, Portugal. Ovo istraživanje daje prednost Wall interfejsu, na polju jasnoće pomeranja i doslednosti ponašanja objekta. Kod Wall interfejsa postoje slabije korelacije između mera reprezentativne tačnosti, a određenu prednost treba dati i desktop vidu prezentacije.Students today lack the real experiences needed to make sense of complex technical concepts although industry is one of the primary customers that constantly challenges academia to make curricula more relevant to professional practice. Our response to these influences was to create and test idea of Distributed and Remote Lab dedicated to active learning. In this survey, the experiments on representational fidelity measures are performed on two types of 'client' user interface (Wall and Window) in two modes of presentation (Desktop and Video beam) of the distributed manufacturing system. The proposed remote system has allowed students from Belgrade, Serbia to dynamically interact with a real manufacturing process held in Minho's Lab, Portugal, to carry out a remote experimental practice. This survey gives advantage to Wall interface, in the fields of smooth display of view changes and object motion and consistency of object behaviour. There are also weaker correlations between representational fidelity measures when Wall interface is used and certain advantage on desktop presentation mode