This award provides funding to the University of Michigan for support of the NSF Research Centers Educators Network (NRCEN): "PARTICIPANT SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS," a Scalable, Virtual Home for Education, Outreach and Public Engagement Professionals, under the direction of Jill Andrews. This website will be an incentive-based, interactive online resource with underlying virtual communication tools oriented around open-source, collaborative software.
The intellectual merit of this project is that it will be a unique opportunity to study the social and technical development of an online community system to support an emerging professional community.
The broader impact of this project is that the Participant Scientists and Engineers site will not only provide NSF with searchable data and documentation for annual reporting purposes, but will serve as a space where knowledge and resources can be assembled and distributed freely.
