CKN
Research - Project Overview
If you are a lover
of classical music, imagine listening to a sonata from Beethoven.
After the music has been introduced in the exposition, it will
undergo a modulation and will arrive at the end of the exposition
in a different key. As the melody further develops, you will
be more and more able to unravel the tune and to analyze and
understand the underlying patterns of the melody. The longer
you listen to the tune, the better you will know what to expect
next.
In our project we are aiming to do the same for the evolution
of communication patterns in social networks. Our goal is to
come up with a framework of temporal communication patterns
typical of different types of collaborative knowledge networks
such as innovation networks, learning networks, and interest
networks.
The CKN
project is working towards answering five core questions:
1 . How
do CKN lead to greater innovation and better learning organizations?
2 . What are the crucial roles in CKN?
3 . How do I find the hidden CKN in my organization?
4 . How can I become a valuable CKN member?
5 . How can my organization profit from CKN?
The following
screen shots and flash movies illustrate our approach:
Screen shot
of a typical communication pattern of a Collaborative
Innovation Network:
People are represented as dots, relationships between people
as links. The community develops around a small core group of
people over time. In the center of the graph, there is the core
team of finally 9 people, exhibiting a dense communication network
while innovating together. Around the core team, there are people
linked to only one or two of the core team members. The Flash
movie shows how the communication network builds up over time,
starting with a dialogue between 1 person in the center, talking
to 3 others. The team then grows into the full team of 9 people.
After an inactivity period (set to 20 days in this example),
relationships calm down and decay until there is only the initial
network.
Click here
to download a flash movie of the innovation network (723 KB)
Screen shot
of a typical communication pattern of a Collaborative
Learning Network:
The communication activities are arranged around the learning
network coordinator in the center of the graph, communicating
with a large group of other community members, who are not communicating
among themselves. A small group of subject matter experts talking
among themselves is developing around the coordinator in the
center.
Click here
to download a flash movie of the learning network (728 KB)
Screen shot
of a typical communication pattern of a Collaborative
Interest Network:
Initially
there are different small teams, operating as isolated islands.
Over time, the structural holes are filling up, until the network
is almost fully connected. There is no clear center in this
graph, different people are acting as local hubs, forming a
"small world" "scale free" network.
Click here
to download a flash movie of the interest network (411 KB) |
