Professional community networks. Has f2f gone the way of Morse code?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520910944355 |
| Date | 20 February 2009 |
| Published date | 20 February 2009 |
| Pages | 5-6 |
| Author | G.E. Gorman |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
EDITORIAL
Professional community
networks
Has f2f gone the way of Morse code?
G.E. Gorman
School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington,
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – This article aims to analyse the design of community systems in two real-world
professional communities that employ a mix of communication modes, that is, face-to-face
communication and computer-mediated communication.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the present situation in the area of
community networks and the more traditional means of communication, like f2f.
Findings – The article finds that the online environment is not yet fully ready to replace more
traditional means of communication like f2f.
Originality/value – This work adds to the body of knowledge on communication modes and makes
some suggestions, which could improve its potential in an online world.
Keywords Face-to-facecommunications, Onlineoperations, Virtual work,Communication technologies
Paper type Viewpoint
In education, in business, in the professions and elsewhere, including virtual team s in
the workplace, online community networks have come to characterise “cutting edge”
developments. At the same time, however, those of us involved as practitioners or
researchers in this domain are acutely aware of how little we know of both the design
factors of community systems and the dynamics of online community interactions that
might point to likely success in an online community environment – success in terms
of improved community activity and outputs. In particular, what design factors
influence these activities and outputs?
This question, along with some associated ones, is the focus of a recent paper by
Geib et al. (2008), which studies professional community activities and systems that
support them. As they indicate, this is not a narrow issue that applies only to virtual
communities, for “the majority of professional communities employ a mix of CMC
(computer-mediated communication) and other communication modes (i.e. telephone,
fax, face-to-face)” (Geib et al., 2008). But, as they also indicate, we have tended to
overlook the design of community-supporting systems in mixed-communication-mode
professional communities – hence their rese arch that analyses community system
design factors in professional communities.
From the perspective of this editor and most of us involved with Online Information
Review, the most interesting community in this research was a learning network of
postgraduate students. Anyone working with postgraduate students and researchers is
aware of how central online professional communities are for communication and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
Professional
community
networks
5
Online Information Review
Vol. 33 No. 1, 2009
pp. 5-6
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520910944355
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