"Do you know a similar project I can learn from?" Self-monitoring of communities of practice in the cultural sciences

Abstract

There is an overwhelming number of digital media supported projects in the cultural sciences on the Internet. Project managers and participants face the question if they are doing the right things right. Most of them are not trained digital media designers nor are they trained computer and network specialists. Costly consultancy is not an alternative due to the lack of financial support for such activities. The answer on these problems is as in many other cases to get support from the community. Therefore, it is crucial to find people doing similar things. In this paper we introduce MAVIS, an Internet based community information system currently containing information about more than 1,500 projects, Web sites, discussion groups and newsletters all originated in the cultural sciences. Within a theoretic framework of working and learning in the cultural sciences we try to identify different levels of similarities for cultural science projects that may be useful for the community.