Knowledge portal as a new paradigm for scientific publishing and collaboration

SUMMARY: This paper addresses the newly emerging paradigm of scientific knowledge dissemination and collaboration. The paper is based on the particular area of knowledge collaboration in the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry, including knowledge sharing and technology transfer in the area of en vironmentally friendly concrete materials. The research and scientific community is moving away from the old “information spread” model for dissemination of scientific information, where knowledge is channelled through paper-based refereed academic journals and conference proceedings. Researchers are becoming involved in publishing their articles in online-refereed journals that provide free or low fee access to scientific information. In this paper the authors propose some general architecture and design guidelines for online, collaborative research environments (Knowledge Portals) in the AEC/FM industry. These virtual, collaborative spaces are becoming an essential part of the modern scientific publishing and knowledge transfer processes within professional communities of practice. The proposed model of the Knowledge Portal for the AEC/FM industry could also serve as a generic model in designing virtual research collaborative environments for other areas of knowledge sharing and collaboration. The paper describes existing technological solutions, adapted by online communities of practice , for maintaining corporate knowledge portals, scientific publishing and knowledge exchange spaces and proposes generic architecture and design principles for a generic Knowledge Portal. As an essential part of the Knowledge Portal, and a sample case study of knowledge dissemination, the paper describes existing stand-alone and Web-based digital collections of research data in the area of environmentally friendly concrete.