kowski's diary

Communities of practice is a concept every social computing practitioners should know. Developed in UC Irvine in the 90s, it describes an ecology of professionals sustaining and producing knowledge within a local organizational environment. Companies once believed that knowledge could be stored in documents and hard drives. Community of practice says that knowledge can only be kept within social communities, through a system of social norms and practices. Many companies now nurture corporate groups to sustain high level of professional practices.

I have successfully defended my dissertation titled Rethinking Participation. The dissertation extended the papers I have published so far to discuss the reasons why cultures of digital production differ. I relate the different work structures of U.S. and China online communities to the communities' social histories, operating environments, and I.T. industrial structures.

My dissertation committee includes Bonnie Nardi (chair), Yunan Chen, and Mimi Ito.

From September 2011, I will continue to examine online communities with Mimi Ito as a Postdoctoral Scholar.

The ruling party in Singapore, People's Action Party, had never lost more than four parliamentary seats since 1968. Today, Singaporeans went to vote. The verdict: PAP lost a total of six seats to the opposition Workers Party. In addition, 60.1% of Singaporeans voted for the PAP, down from 66.6% in 2006 and lowest since the country's independence. These numbers are highly significant in a political scene long dominated by a single political party. So what is different in this General Election?

Old books sometimes give us surprisingly timely insights into current research questions. A question that is important to digital media research is to think about all the changes brought along by digital technologies bringing changes all around us. I read an old text written by Bronislaw Malinowski in 1945 that touches on some relevant subjects. Here are some of the excerpts:

I have a dream. That dream is a vision that spurs most of my research work.