Web-based Learning Solutions for Communities of Practice

Live Virtual Technologies to Support Extended Events in Online Communities
an end when there was a communicative goal
which was achieved.
Although there is still little research into
synchronous tools supporting extended communicative
events, a set of challenging questions
derives from the choice of systems for online
video communication. In this chapter, we focus
on the following:
How can different synchronous tools support
social presence and interaction patterns in online
communities?
What are the parameters influencing the selection
of the suitable application in extended
meetings?
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Is the selection random, or opportunistic?
How are the trade-offs between awareness
and disruption in foreground and
background
managed?
communication channels
Do we need to redesign synchronous tools
or integrate existing tools to support extended
online events?
The main objective of this study is to investigate
the choice of tools employed by online
communities in extended collaborative events,
which require the use of a mixture of tools to
support knowledge workers in their tasks and
activities. This chapter discusses a case study of
naturalistic interactions in an extended event held
by an online community of practice in the context
of collaborative proposal writing. We examine
whether existing tools meet the users’ requirements
for such events and explore the possible need to
redesign presence tools combining foreground and
background communication channels, managing
at the same time the trade-offs between awareness
and privacy in shared media spaces. Even for the
same event, it seems that users select a combination
of synchronous tools, depending on the context
and nature of interaction. We discuss results from
virtual ethnographic studies of two live online
tools, FM for videoconferencing and Hexagon,
initially designed for ambient video awareness,
but evidently used successfully in a variety of
contexts for extended meetings. In the extended
meeting use, the FM and Hexagon participants
all share the same project goals for a number of
days, with a very specific outcome beyond any
‘ambient’ usage. We provide insights into the
tools usage in one extended event and report on
qualitative user feedback from questionnaires
and interviews. It appears that the choice of the
tool for extended meetings depends on a range
of factors, such as event temporal duration (FM
events with specific duration versus prolonged
Hexagon events), communication purpose (make
a quick decision, make a decision after longer
discussions), social awareness need (reassurance
that other community members are immediately
contactable to help with questions or decision
making) and interaction patterns between partners
(audio/ video communication, private or public
chat, file sharing, web tour etc.).
SYNCHRONOUS TOOLS TO
SUPPORT EXTENDED EVENTS
A variety of synchronous and asynchronous tools
may support online communities of practice. Email
is currently the most popular computer-mediated
communication form, running in the background,
addressed to one or multiple receivers. Forums
are another form of asynchronous communication
intended for virtual communities. Synchronous
communication involves the exchange of text
chat messages, which can be done in parallel with
other tasks (Isaacs et al, 2002), and ambient shared
spaces, running in the background. Telephone
and live videoconferencing are synchronous
and considered as foreground communication
channels (for a summary account of such online
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