This research investigates computer support for learning, working, and collaborating. It focuses on communities of practice (such as local area network managers and research teams) as subgroups within and across organizations. It involves work with specific communities to study their actual and potential learning processes. Based on the interpretation and assessment of these observations and theories from the research literature and previous work the project will develop and articulate a new conceptual framework for computational support of organizational learning. The research issues to be addressed include (1) how to capture knowledge and integrate the contexts of work; (2)how to sustain timeliness and utility of evolving information, and (3) how to deliver relevant information actively and adaptively. To assess and develop this framework, organizational memories will be created in collaboration with these communities, that include (1) mechanisms to capture and represent task specifications, work artifacts, and group communications; (2) facilities for practitioners to reorganize and sustain the usefulness of the memory; and (3)techniques of access and delivery for knowledge relevant to current tasks,. The project will extend emerging WWW technologies with structured web-site interactivity, version control of evolving information, software critiquing agents, and end-user programmability. Finally, the memory and learning prototypes will be assessed in naturalistic settings.
