Calls for papers

 

International Journal of Web Based Communities
International Journal of Web Based Communities

 

Special Issue on: "Web 2.0 Goes Academia: Innovative Scenarios for Socio-technical Communities"


Guest Editor: Isa Jahnke, Dortmund University of Technology, Germany


Web 2.0 is – as O’Reilly (2005) said – a “second generation of Internet-based services”. The common idea is to enable people to collaborate and share information online in new ways, such as in wikis, communication tools, social networking applications, and social tagging. Figure 1 confronts the two concepts and lists examples from Web 2.0 usage in academia.

Web 1.0
(mainly 1992-2000)

Web 2.0
(shift since 2001)

Examplesi:
Web 2.0 goes Academia

Encylopedia Britannica Online, etc.

wikipedia.com

Wikis for lectures; pepysdiary.comii

Personal websites

Blogging (e.g., IBM developerWorks Blogsiii)

Personal Netvibes.comiv (based on RSS-Feeds) and Blogs

Publishing

Participation (e.g., discussion boards)

Jabref (Open source based on LaTex, BibTex) in combination with Bibsonomyv

Directories (taxonomy)

Social tagging, social bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.usvi)

Content management systems

Wikis

OpenUniversity http://www.netvibes.com/openlearn

Telephone

Instant messaging (e.g., ICQ), VoIP (e.g., Skype)

Instant Messaging, Microblogging with Twitter

GPS non internet-based

New location-based services (mobile devices, e.g., Dodgeballvii)

tell us where you are and we locate researchers of your network so you can meet up

Newsgroups

Social networking (e.g., facebook / xing.comviii) / online communities

Facebook for searching and finding researchers and practitioners, e.g. e-Science-Community

-> Download of information: one-to-many

-> Communication & collaboration about information (many2many)

-> Creating innovative ways for research and teaching

Web 2.0 and Social Software focus on new or existing software systems which are influenced by human communication and collaboration, or, to put it another way, Web 2.0 is heavily reliant on social interaction, and so social web-based applications generate and require a human-centred design approach.

The number of users of Web 2.0 applications in private settings (e.g., leisure) is very high. However, in organisations and institutions, Web 2.0 concepts or such combined applications are still at an early stage. The same is true for universities. There are some Web 2.0 tools in universities, in particular Wikis and Blogs, but the usage of these tools for supporting teaching, learning or research is not yet fully developed. How can Web 2.0 support community-based learning or research processes in academia?

The aim is to collect proposals for academic practice with Web 2.0, to specify research questions dealing with Web 2.0 in academia or to discuss new research methods and their challenges in this topic (e.g., e-ethnography). The special issue wants to share practical experience or research results about using Web 2.0 in teaching and research, for example, e-learning goes Web 2.0, scientific communities go Web 2.0 or research publications go Web 2.0. Therefore, we strongly encourage researchers and practitioners who have ideas or experience of using Web 2.0 applications in academia to submit a paper.

Subject Coverage
Research questions the special issue will focus include, but are not limited to:
  • What Web 2.0 applications exist in universities, in research or in learning?
  • Do Web 2.0 applications in academia make a difference to existing Internet applications like email, content management systems or newsgroups?
  • Do you have success stories or success criteria of Web 2.0 usage in academic fields?
  • What changes are observable or essential when introducing Web 2.0 concepts in teaching or research settings?
  • How can we introduce Web 2.0 applications in the academic world?
  • What is the negative side of Web 2.0 in Academia with respect to plagiarism and "Wikipedia-only" references in student theses?

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page


Important Dates

Deadline for paper submission: 3 August 2008

NEW Deadline for notifications (accepted / rejected papers): 8 December, 2008