I’m intrigued by Chris Blanchard’s Pronetos project.  At the International Center for Jefferson Studies (ICJS) at Monticello, we’ve been exploring ways to build an online community of Jefferson scholars, historians and research fellows (past, present & future), where they can identify and link up with other scholars working in similar topics relating to the life, times, and legacy of Thomas Jefferson.  We think of it as an extension of the physical space and community we provide at Kenwood for scholarly exchange and discourse, and a means for fellows and scholars from all over the globe to continue conversations beyond their time at ICJS.  We’ll like to see a research commons emerge that incorporates collaboration, sharing of sources, critiquing of draft papers, joint development of conferences & symposia, reviews & recommendations, a repository of research papers, toolkits for historical analysis, etc.

I can definitely see the potential of creating a social network built around a specialized focus, but linking out to a wider network of Early American historians, and then also to scholars in Pronetos and other scholarly social networks.

I’d be interested to learn from folks about other F/OSS like Pronetos out there.  What do folks think about adapting Facebook, or Mediawiki to do something similar?  Is there a good way to manage different discussion threads over time so there’s some coherence?  How do we encourage scholars who are less comfortable with technology to participate?  How do we incentivize participation, contribute content, and share research?  In other words, how do we enlarge participation beyond the 20% who contribute 80% of the content?  And how do we remove real and perceived barriers to participation from the remaining 80% of folks whom we want to draw in?

Tags: collaboration, communities of practice, research commons

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