WEB-BASED COLLABORATION AS A KNOWLEDGE ECOSYSTEM

摘要

In this paper we investigate Web-based collaboration or Web-based collaborative problem solving from the perspective of a knowledge ecosystem, which is a triple network of a "people network" supported by a "technology network" and generating a "knowledge network". This knowledge ecosystem evolves during the emergent problem solving processes; at the same time, the evolution of the knowledge ecosystem in turn boosts emergent problem solving. Furthermore, based on a "global brain" metaphor of the Web-based knowledge ecosystem, the technological framework for supporting emergent problem solving in such knowledge ecosystem is then discussed, embracing the recent technological developments on the Web and utilizing Swarm-Intelligence-technology to facilitate the self-organization of the Web-based knowledge structure.