Virtual Communication, Collaboration and Conflict Research Group

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VIRT3C

URL = http://virt3c.wordpress.com/

Description

"The Virtual Communication, Collaboration and Conflict Research Group (VIRT3C) is about passionate collaborative production and exploring the strengths and weakness of peer technology and open projects. VIRT3C will bring leading cybertheorists, internet, peer production and social networking experts together for knowledge-sharing, and collaboration in interdisciplinary academic projects, facilitating original ideas for research and funding applications. It will provide a physical base and a hub of activity, provoking and supporting new ideas of research to several successful virtual networks, such as the P2P Foundation, Oekonux and other virtual communities.

The reason people participate in online collaborative projects is to learn and develop new skills, which have economic value to developers and employers. It encourages and increases the value that can be added locally, instead of concentrating value with the proprietor. For example free software facilitates local economies, indicating a powerful organizational model, harnessing innovation and allocating scarce resources in a sustainable fashion. This new politico-economic model is currently having a great impact on business, media and global politics, to the extent that sociopolitical movements have taken notice of the potential of the new technoscape for societal change, as much as governments are more and more engaging with the financial benefits, challenges and threats of these informal communities and skills-development environments.


Intended outcomes:

1. A physical base in Hull for dozens of virtual networks academic and otherwise on the area of virtual communication, collaboration and conflict.

2. A co-operative forum for dialogue about the standards and changes in online collaborative environments.

3. A participatory group, exchanging ideas, experiences, and creating collaborative research agendas.

4. Promoting ideas and values of online collaboration, conflict resolution and raising the visibility of alternative governance and organization.

5. Networking with individuals and organizations working in the identified areas to develop contacts and knowledge exchange opportunities with participants.

6. Creating educational activities in the forms of seminars, workshops and conferences and working groups for knowledge exchange.

7. Developing new research and publications in this field, new research outlets, such a electronic journals in collaboration with partners.

8. Coordinating funding applications for European, international projects and smaller grants in collaboration with member individuals and organizations." (http://virt3c.wordpress.com/about/)