Do collaboratories mean the end of face-to-face interactions? An evidence from the ISEE project

Scientific collaboration encompasses two main issues: knowledge sharing and trust. Geographical distance has an impact on both. Our purpose is to test the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) sophistication on remote collaboration: do collaboratories mean the end of face-to-face interactions? We first analyse the importance of geographical proximity with regard to knowledge transfer and trust. For both, we address the main problems set by geographical distance and the answers provided by ICT. These technologies come in a rich variety in a ‘collaboratory’. They can be classified according to two criteria: their degree of synchronisation and the ‘quality’ of the communication cues. It turns out that the diversity of technical solutions can lead to firm solutions or palliatives to overcoming the barriers of geographical proximity. A case study in the field of space physics allows us to test our hypotheses.

[1]  J. Walther.  Group and Interpersonal Effects in International Computer-Mediated Collaboration , 1997 .

[2]  Darren Gergle,et al.  Effects of four computer-mediated communications channels on trust development , 2002, CHI.

[3]  W. Steinmueller.  Knowledge‐based economies and information and communication technologies , 2002 .

[4]  Jun Zheng,et al.  Trust without touch: jumpstarting long-distance trust with initial social activities , 2002, CHI.

[5]  J. Sylvan Katz,et al.  Geographical proximity and scientific collaboration , 1994, Scientometrics.

[6]  J. Walther,et al.  Relational communication in computer-mediated interaction , 1990 .

[7]  Edward Lorenz,et al.  Trust and Economic Learning , 1998 .

[8]  R. Daft,et al.  Media Symbolism, Media Richness, and Media Choice in Organizations , 1987 .

[9]  James D. Herbsleb,et al.  Out of sight, short of Trust , 2001 .

[10]  Franco Malerba,et al.  Knowledge, innovative activities and industrial evolution , 2000 .

[11]  R. Brandis.  The Limits of Organization , 1975 .

[12]  C. Handy.  Trust and the virtual organization , 1999 .

[13]  R. Daft,et al.  Information Richness. A New Approach to Managerial Behavior and Organization Design , 1983 .

[14]  Thomas A. Finholt,et al.  Collaboratories as a new form of scientific organization , 2003 .

[15]  Paul A. David,et al.  The explicit economics of knowledge codification and tacitness , 2000 .

[16]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Mitigating the effects of distance on collaborative intellectual work , 2003 .

[17]  B. Lundvall,et al.  Employment and Growth in the Knowledge-Based Economy , 1996 .

[18]  J. Walther.  Computer-Mediated Communication , 1996 .

[19]  Alexandre Caldas.  Are newsgroups extending "invisible colleges" into the digital infrastructure of science? , 2003 .

[20]  George A. Akerlof.  The Market for “Lemons”: Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism , 1970 .

[21]  R. Rice.  Computer-Mediated Communication and Organizational Innovation , 1987 .

[22]  Diego Gambetta.  Trust : making and breaking cooperative relations , 1992 .

[23]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design , 1986 .