Abstract
The introduction or new communication and information technologies in work communities has primarily been used to crete new channels of communication andℜ the cost or communication among members in the workplace. Ironically, the pervasiveness of individuals to discern social structures. Fortunately, information technologies that Tie responsible for triggering this problem can also be used to overcome these obstacles. Beciuse new generation of software called “collaborative filters” or “comniumtyware” (C ontnctoi O’Keefe, & Jones, 1997; Kautz, Selman, & Shah, 1997) can be used to make visible the work communities’ virtual social structure. One such tool, IKNOW (Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web; http://iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu/), has been designed by a team of UIUC researchres to assist individuals to search the organization’s databases to automatically answer questions about the organization’s knowledge network, that is, “Who knows what?” as well as questions about the organization’s cognitive knowledge networks, that is, “Who knows who knows what?” within the organization. Unlike traditional web search engines that help an individual search for content on the web, tools such as IKNOW search for content and contacts (direct and indirect). In addition to being instantly beneficial to users, they also provide the researcher with an opportunity to unobtrusively and reliably study the influence of communityware on the co-evolution of knowledge networks.
The conceptual development oflKNOW was conducted as part of aresearch project funded by the National Science Foundation (ECS-9422730).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Burt, R. S. (1997). The contingent value of social capital. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, 339–365.
Carley, K. M. (1990). Group stability: A socio-cognitive approach. In Lawler K, Markovsky B., Ridgeway C., & Walker H. (Eds.). Advances in group processes: Theory & research. Vol.VII (pp. 1–44). Greenwich, CN: JAI Press.
Carley, K. M. (1991). A theory of group stability. American Sociological Review 56, 331–354.
Carley, K. M., & Newell, A. (1994). The nature of the social agent Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 19(4): 221–262.
Carley, K., & Prietula, M. J. (Eds.) (1994). Computational Organizational Theory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Contractor, N. S., Carley, K, Levitt, R., Monge, P. R., Wasserman, S., Bar, F., Fulk, J, Hollingshead, A., Kunz, J. (1998). Co-evolution of Knowledge Networks and Twenty-first Century Organizational Forms: Computational Modeling and Empirical Testing. Working Paper.
Contractor, N. S. & Eisenberg, E.M. (1990) Communication networks and new media in organizations. In J. Fulk & C. Steinfield (Eds.) Organizations and Communication Technology (pp. 143–172), Newbury Park: Sage.
Contractor, N. S., O’Keefe, B. J., & Jones, P. M. (1997). IKNOW: Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web. Computer software. University of Illinois. (http://iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu/.
Contractor, N. S. (1997). Inquiring Knowledge Networks on the Web. Conceptual overview. http://www.tec.spcomm.uiuc.edu/nosh/IKNOW/sld001.htm
Farace, R.V., Monge, P. R., & Russell, H. M. (1977). Communicating and organizing. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Gore, A., Jr. (1996). The metaphor of distributed intelligence. Science, 272, 177.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1998b). Retrieval processes in transactive memory systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 659–671.
Hyatt, A., Contractor, N., & Jones, P. M. (1997). Computational organizational network modeling: Strategies and an example. Computational and Mathematical Organizational Theory, 4, 285–300.
Kautz, H., Selman, B., & Shah, M. (1997). Combining social networks and collaborative filtering. Communications of the ACM, 40, 63–65.
Monge, P. R., & Contractor, N. S. (1988). Communication networks: Measurement techniques. In C. H. Tardy (Ed.), A handbook for the study of human communication: Methods and instruments for observing, measuring, and assessing communication processes. (pp. 107–138). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Monge, P.R., & Contractor, N. (in press). Emergence of communication networks. In EM. Jablin & L.L. Putnam (Eds.), Handbook of organizational communication (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Wasserman, S., & Faust, K. (1994). Social network analysis: Methods and applications. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wegner, D. M. (1987). Transactive memory: A contemporary analysis of the group mind. In B. Mullen & G. R. Goethals (Eds.) Theories of group behavior (pp. 185–208). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Wegner, D. M. (1995). A computer network model of human transactive memory. Social Cognition, 73:3, 319–339.
Young, J. (July 24, 1998). Using computer models to study the complexities of human society. Chronicle of Higher Education, 44, 46, A17.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Contractor, N.S., Zink, D., Chan, M. (1998). IKNOW: A Tool to Assist and Study the Creation, Maintenance, and Dissolution of Knowledge Networks. In: Ishida, T. (eds) Community Computing and Support Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1519. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49247-X_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49247-X_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65475-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49247-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive