Knowledge Communities

6 Knowledge Communities Knowledge The goal of the book is to study the concept of communities of knowledge, which goes beyond the notion of communities Knowledge Communities of practice, as a way to analyze the structure of the emergent knowledge societies. If we believe that a complex society has EDITED BY to be integrated by various and heterogeneous communities, a knowledge society should be based on the plurality of commu- Javier Echeverría, Andoni Alonso, and Pedro J. Oiarzabal nities of knowledge. This was the main hypothesis behind the organization of the “International Conference on Knowledge Communities,” which is at the origins of this book. A selection of updated versions of the papers presented at the Conference is found in this volume. The Conference took place at the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, University of Nevada, Reno, on April 23–25, 2009, and was sponsored by the Center for Basque Studies. Our intention was to explore new modalities of innovation, in addition to those based on science (e.g., e-science), engineering, artistic communities as well as online communities. To do so, we had to widen the concept of communities E of practice, resulting on the examination of the concept of DIT knowledge communities. Consequently, Knowledge Commu- E D BY nities analyze four broad types of communities: “Science,” ”Free Knowledge,” “Arts,” and “Online.” Seventeen scholars from multiple disciplines look at whether such communities Alonso, and Pedro J. Javier can generate real knowledge societies that could potentially contribute to economic, social and political advantages for the E whole of the population, facilitating technological develop- chevarría, Andoni ment and innovation. ISBN 978-1-877802-??-? O iarzabal Center for Basque Studies - University of Nevada, Reno CONFERENCE PAPERS SERIES Center for Basque Studies - University of Nevada, Reno Center for Basque Studies Conference Papers Series, No. 6 Knowledge Communities EDITED BY Javier Echeverría, Andoni Alonso, and Pedro J. Oiarzabal Conference Papers Series Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno This book was published with generous financial support from the Basque Government. Center for Basque Studies Conference Papers Series, No. 6 Series Editor: Joseba Zulaika Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2010 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Cover and Series design © 2010 Jose Luis Agote. Cover illustration: ??. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ConTenTS Introduction—From Communities of Practice to Knowledge Communities . 7 JAVIER ECHEVERRÍA , ANDONI ALONSO , and PEDRO J. OIARZABAL Part 1—Science 1. Epistemopolis: From Knowledge Communities to Knowledge Cities ............ 19 JAVIER ECHEVERRÍA 2. Climate Change and Knowledge Communities ................................ 37 MARI CAR M EN GALLASTE G UI and IBON GALARRA G A 3. The Ikastola from Community to Knowledge Community: Learning and Organizational Changes . 53 ALFONSO UNCETA and MARCELINO MASA 4. Knowledge Communities, Structural Contexts, and Innovation Spaces....... 73 ANDER GURRUTXA G A and ÁLVARO LUNA Part 2—Free Knowledge 5. Knowledge Communities: From Conceptual Issues to Ethical-Political Questions ....................................................... 95 CARL MITCHA M 6. System ERROR: Liberate Memory! . 109 NATXO RODRÍ G UEZ 7. Free Software Explains Everything . 123 CHRISTO P HER KELTY 8. Right to Know, New Technologies, and New Communities of Citizenship... 145 ANDONI ALONSO and ANTONIO LAFUENTE 6 Contents Part 3—Arts 9. Two Basque Sculptors . 163 PETER SELZ 10. Paris, New York, and the Basque International Art Community.............. 173 ANNA MARÍA GUASCH and JOSEBA ZULAI K A Part 4—Online 11. Online Knowledge Crowds and Communities ................................. 193 CAROLINE HAYTHORNTHWAITE 12. The Online Social Networks of the Basque Diaspora: Fast Forwarded, 2005–2009 ..................................................... 211 PEDRO J. OIARZABAL Contributors .......................................................................... 243 Index.................................................................................. 251 Introduction—From Communities of Practice to Knowledge Communities JAVIER ECHEVERRÍA , ANDONI ALONSO , and PEDRO J. OIARZABAL The communities of practice concept has been used since the 1990s by those specialized in knowledge management, with the purpose of analyzing and promoting the transfer of knowledge within a business or other institution type. However, two cognitive anthropol- ogists, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, were the first ones to use such a concept to refer to a group of people who share a particular interest, activity and occupation, and were able to generate a learning process, which in turn created knowledge at both individual and collective levels.1 Lave and Wegner defined communities of practice as “a set of relations among per- sons, activity and world, over time in relation with other tangential and overlapping CoPs [communities of practice].”2 By sharing information and experiences, the members of the group were able to generate common knowledge, which would define both the group and its members. In fact, Lave and Wegner argue that “an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge.”3 The specific cases that they analyzed were: non-drinking alcoholics, Goa tailors, quartermasters, butchers, and Yucatan midwives. The authors opened up a new perspective of analysis within the discipline of cognitive anthropology and the theory of social Exchange. Lave and Wegner defined “situated learning” as the model of learning in a community of practice, which resulted from those practices as well as from the participation in the activities of a given group. Their proposal was well accepted, and the notion of 1. Lave and Wegner, Situation Learning. 2. Ibid., 98. 3. Ibid. 8 Javier Echeverría, Andoni Alonso, and Pedro J. Oiarzabal communities of practice became an analytical tool for sociology, anthropology, and innovation studies. Since then, diverse social and professional activities have been analyzed using such a conceptual framework: flute makers, photocopier technicians at Xerox, and international organizations.4 In every single case, the resolution of any problem was obtained by claiming a previous knowledge gained from working experience, and which had been stored in the memory of some of the members of the community of practice. Otherwise, the problem was resolved by confronting it collectively and looking for a solution on a trial and error base (learning by doing, but collectively). This created a knowledge that became a common patrimony of the community of practice. At the beginning, only those communities that have a physical presence got analyzed, but the model was soon applied to study communities spatially dispersed, including vir- tual communities on the Internet. A prime example of Internet communities comes from the Free Software movement; where innovation and technological development is carried out by communities of practice that are distributed across cyberspace and interconnected by the Internet. As seen, the application fields of this new concept were from the beginning quite varied. Hildreth and Kimble analyzed in detail the diverse meanings of the notion “communities of practice” for the last years, evidencing its evolution to the point that a new concept, “knowledge networks,” has emerged, which has become quite relevant to study the “network society.”5 The interactive learning processes and the development of activities on the Internet are two of the great changes provoked by the emergence of telematics networks. That’s why communities that develop activities online are so significant.T hey create knowledge that is distributed among many knowledge networks. In sum, Lave and Wenger’s “communities of practice” conceptual innovation, which began studying learning processes, has increasingly widened its semantic meaning for the past few years. It has become an important analytical tool for the management and dis- semination of knowledge. The same happened to concept of “innovation,” quite linked to the concept of communities of practice. Back in 1992, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Oslo Manual, an international source of guidelines for empirical studies on innovation, only focused on the technological innovation of products. However, on its second version (1997), the manual began to address process innovation, while its last version (2003) included another two types of innovation: organizational and marketing. As evidence show that communities of practice act as innovation agents, their diverse connotations have to be studied parallel to the evolution of the concept of innovation, which in turn has increased its semantic meaning. The goal of the book is to study the concept of communities of knowledge, which goes beyond the notion of communities of practice, as a way to analyze the structure of 4. Cook and Yanow, “Culture and Organizational Thinking”; Orr, Talking about Machines; Hildreth, Kimble, and Wright, “Communities of Practice in the Distributed International Environment.” 5. Hildreth and Kimble, Knowledge Networks; Castells, The Rise of the Network Society.” Introduction 9 the emergent knowledge societies. If we believe that a complex society has to be integrated by various and heterogeneous communities, a knowledge

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