ASIS&T: Collaborating with Colleagues Across Disciplinary, Organizational and Geographic Boundaries: Lessons Learned

Association for Information Science and Technology

Annual Meeting
November 12-17, 2004
Providence, Rhode Island

“Managing and Enhancing Information:
Cultures and Conflicts”

THIS COURSE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Collaborating with Colleagues Across Disciplinary, Organizational and Geographic Boundaries: Lessons Learned
Full Day Seminar, Saturday, November 13, 2004, 9:00am-5:00pm (separate fee)

There are interesting and important research questions that emerge in information and library science (ILS) that may best be addressed by research teams that include colleagues from different disciplines, organizations and geographic locations. There are also interesting and important research questions that emerge in other disciplines and settings that can benefit from knowledge and expertise found in information and library science. Collaboration among researchers from multiple disciplines, organizations and geographic locations can provide unique opportunities to create new knowledge as well as unique educational experiences for students. However, collaboration with colleagues from different disciplines, organizations and locations can also introduce new challenges because disciplines, university departments and organizations all have different norms and practices as well as perceptions, both positive and negative, of other disciplines and organizations.

This workshop is intended to be a forum for researchers and professionals who have participated in interdisciplinary, interorganizational and geographically distributed collaboration to share their experiences and lessons learned. It is also a forum for researchers and professionals who may not have yet collaborated with colleagues from other disciplines, organizations and locations and who would like to learn from others’ experiences. The focus is on practical experiences and advice, sharing lessons learned that may be particularly relevant to the field of information and library science.

Workshop participants who have experience collaborating with researchers and professionals in other disciplines, organizations and locations are asked to prepare a 20 minute presentation discussing their experiences. We are particularly interested in discussing how differences in work practices and norms were identified, and how a working understanding evolved among collaborators. We would welcome case studies that cover these topics explicitly. If there’s interest among presenters and attendees, a collection of papers by presenters and a workshop report will be published.

Instructors

Diane Sonnenwald
Diane Sonnenwald conducts research on collaboration and collaboration technology in a variety of contexts. She has led several interdisciplinary projects, such as nanoManipulator Collaboratory Research Project (with M. Whitton) funded by the National Institutes of Health, and the Collaboration Effort at the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes. She and colleagues in computer science and medicine recently received a grant from the US National Library of Medicine to investigate the potential of 3D telepresence technology for emergency medical consultation. Currently Diane is a Professor at the Swedish School of Information and Library Science at Göteborg University and University College of Borås, and an affiliate professor at the University of North Carolina (USA).

Elisabeth Davenport
Elisabeth Davenport is a professor on the faculty of the School of Computing at Napier, and a Board Member of the International Democracy Centre there. She has been involved in a number of collaborative projects funded by the European Commission (EC) in the areas of community informatics, e-government and knowledge management for virtual enterprises. She leads the Social Informatics Group at Napier, and a Research Fellow of the International Teledemocracy Centre, a new initiative funded by BT Scotland and Napier University. Elisabeth also serves on the editorial boards of Library Quarterly and JASIS&T.

Fees
Members $225, non-members $255, before Oct. 1
Members $255, non-members $285, after Oct. 1

Association for Information Science and Technology
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA
Tel. 301-495-0900, Fax: 301-495-0810 | E-mail: asis@asis.org