Web 2.0 and collaborative knowledge in the university context

The novelty of Web 2.0 lies in its ability to address the possibilities and demands of sharing information and knowledge practices across dispersed groups and communities with diverse social prerequisites. In the university context the Web 2.0 perspective is mainly used to discuss new educational possibilities and the collaboration between researchers and scholars is not highlighted. In this paper we will highlight Web 2.0 in connection to the knowledge creation processes among university staff and researchers and we argue that Web 2.0 could encourage a new way of scholarly communication and collaboration. In other words, we envision a change in the way university researchers view and enact knowledge sharing as a collaborative activity both offline and online. This is a view which is in line with the ideals of Web 2.0, Learning 2.0 as well as the practice-based perspective on knowledge management, focusing on knowledge creation as human collaborative actions in specific social contexts. This is an aspect of Web 2.0 and collaborative knowledge which we feel has been neglected in research so far. The need for empirical studies is obvious and in the near future we aim at conducting empirical studies into the use of Web 2.0 as a collaborative tool among university staff.

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