The award will support a program of research on the emergence and support of distributed collaborative communities, particularly those that are centered around specific business or educational objectives. The key issues and questions to be explored include: (a) How virtual communities differ from face-to-face communities; (b) How individuals signal membership and what are the mechanisms for and barriers to entry or exit (c) How particular technological characteristics enable or obstruct group work and community building (d) How virtual communities are forged across computer-based networks and across the physical-virtual divide; and (e) What are the implications of breaking down divisions between 'home' and 'work,' for individual 'lifescapes' and broader community infrastructures. The methods to be used in this project include ethnographic studies and joint analysis of videotape data.
