VOSS: The Roles of Awareness and Social Networks in the Initiation and Sustenance of Research-Oriented Virtual Organizations

该项目的目的是了解意识在发起和维持以研究为导向的虚拟组织中的作用。以研究为导向的虚拟组织使：1)具有不同观点的研究人员之间的互动，否则他们可能不会一起工作；2)昂贵和稀缺资源的共享；3)完成任务和解决问题的新方法。尽管有这些优势，研究型虚拟组织成员经常遇到的一个问题是与远程同事沟通和协调的持续困难。造成这种情况的一个关键原因是，随着项目的进展，许多以研究为导向的虚拟组织缺乏支持其成员之间有效意识和互动的能力。这项工作建立在社会网络理论和交互记忆理论以及人际意识理论的基础上，专注于我们所说的？意识到网络吗?？ 也就是说，个人的网络，在某种程度上，彼此保持着联系。本研究主要关注3个关键问题：1)开发一种新的两阶段意识方法，弥合目前以研究为导向的虚拟组织的启动与持续有效工作之间的理论和实践差距；2)发展对网络联系在人际意识中的作用的理解，使我们能够将基于网络和关系的个人理解应用于设计工具的更大问题，以在研究型虚拟组织和社区中提供人际意识和专业知识信息；(3)拓展交互记忆理论，使其超越简单的专业知识分布知识，包括意识的多个维度。这项工作将产生新的理论和技术，为我们提供信息并增强我们支持解决社会面临的关键挑战的虚拟组织的能力。未来和现有的ROVO成员将能够更好地相互定位，协调和合作，以取得成功的联合成果。

The objective of this project is to understand the role of awareness in the initiation and sustenance of research-oriented virtual organizations. Research-oriented virtual organizations enable: 1) interaction between researchers with diverse perspectives who might not otherwise work together; 2) the sharing of expensive and scarce resources; and 3) novel ways of accomplishing tasks and solving problems. Despite these advantages, one frequent problem encountered by members of research-oriented virtual organizations is persistent difficulty in communicating and coordinating with remote colleagues. One key reason for this is that many research-oriented virtual organizations lack the capacity to support effective awareness and interaction among their members as projects progress.This work builds on theories of social networks and transactive memory as well as theories of interpersonal awareness in focusing on what we call ?awareness networks? ? that is, networks of individuals who, at some level of detail, keep track of each other. The work focuses on 3 key issues: 1) developing a novel two-staged approach to awareness that bridges the current theoretical and practical gap between the initiation of research-oriented virtual organizations and sustained effective work; 2) developing an understanding of the roles of network ties in interpersonal awareness that allow us to apply a network- and relationship-based understanding of individuals to the larger problem of designing tools to provide interpersonal awareness and expertise information in research-oriented virtual organizations and communities; 3) extending transactive memory theory to include multiple dimensions of awareness beyond simple knowledge of expertise distribution. This work will result in new theories and technologies that inform and enhance our ability to support virtual organizations that address key challenges confronting society. Prospective and current ROVO members will be better able to locate each other, coordinate and collaborate toward successful joint outcomes.