Collaborative knowledge management for long-term research sites

Abstract

Collaboration is a feature of all stages in the development and implementation of long-term research sites, and has traditionally occurred through the medium of face-to-face meetings. However, the recent development of Groupware software products permits collaboration and knowledge management over the Internet. A range of World Wide Web-based systems currently in operational use at the Pacific Forestry Centre are reviewed in terms of their capacity for knowledge management and their ability to facilitate collaboration. The manner in which the systems integrate World Wide Web and database technologies is described. We present a description of a prototype knowledge management system to facilitate dynamic, web-based collaborative construction of concept graphs and relationships. These will help researchers reach consensus on concepts and assumptions, make differences explicit to facilitate experimental resolution, and elicit knowledge from researchers external to the project. Key words: World Wide Web, java applets, perl, database