Knowledge sharing and management in open access e‐resources & communities

Abstract

AbstractAn open access community is a digital repository or an online community where scientific information and communication are free to the public through computing technologies (Hanauske, M., et al 2007; Hubbard, C., et al, 2005). Open access community provides a new way for knowledge sharing and knowledge management. It takes advantage of collective expertise by providing a repository for research papers and research data that are scattered or take a long time to be published. The panel will discuss experiences and challenges people face in various open access communities. Particularly, we will discuss the following issues: How did each community or repository achieve the functions of “organize” and “share” among people having a common interest in the community? How long did it take to launch and establish an open‐access community? What impact of such an open‐access community / repository has on people's interaction with information? Impact on fee‐based digital libraries or traditional libraries? What the tradeoffs are between opened vs. controlled? How well do they address privacy issues? How well is current open access community/ repository meeting human needs, and what should future technology research and development involve to better meet user needs?