To solve the most critical intellectual and social problems, teams need to be made up of the best possible people, linked to the best possible resources. While there is growing awareness of the socio-economic consequences of team collaborations, there is little socio-technical understanding of how teams are assembled or how a given mode of assembly impacts its effectiveness.
This project seeks to address this limitation by developing a theoretical framework to understand the socio-technical dynamics shaping the assembly of teams in virtual communities. These multidimensional networks include a variety of links that exist not only among individuals, but also with documents, datasets, workflows, analytic tools, and concepts. With these new configurations in mind, this project addresses two main research questions: First, what are the socio-technical motivations that explain the assembly of teams in virtual communities? Second, to what extent do the assembly mechanisms of teams influence their effectiveness? Empirically testing such models poses formidable data collection challenges. However, this project has access to six major initiatives serving diverse scientific virtual communities including nanoscience, environmental engineering, earthquake engineering, chemical sciences, media research and tobacco research.
Intellectual merit: This effort is uniquely positioned to usher a new generation of theories and methods focused on explaining an important precursor to all collaborations - the socio-technical assembly mechanisms used to generate effective teams in virtual communities. Methodologically, this project will significantly extend network analytic techniques for statistically modeling high-dimensionality multimodal networks.
Broader impacts: The proposed research will have broad impacts on three stakeholder communities. First, individual researchers, especially students and those not in elite institutions will learn strategies to assemble effective teams in virtual communities. Second, leaders of virtual communities will gain a dashboard to assess and steer strategies within their initiatives. Third, funding agencies will get new insights in assessing their portfolios and directing science policy.
Team assembly
Software Tool Collaboration on nanoHub: Team Composition Implications for Performance [pdf] (submitted to a conference)
Abstract: The portion of scientific papers produced by teams has increased tremendously in recent years, and papers produced by teams are cited more frequently and received more highly. This expansion in the scope and quality of teamwork has been partly attributed to improvements in communication technology and cyber-infrastructure. This study examines collaboration within the nanoHub.org workspace, a cyberinfrastructure-enabled virtual organization hosted by Purdue University. The study tests theoretical mechanisms established in research of offline team collaboration. Results indicate that nanoHub teams operate under similar principles, but with some interesting exceptions. The study concludes by exploring ways in which nanoHub features might be added or improved to further foster collaboration both within and outside the workspace.
Team Assembly, by Zeina Atrash, Yun Huang, Drew Margolin, Katya Ognyanova, Noshir Contractor [ppt]
(to be added)
Northwestern: Noshir Contractor, Brian Uzzi, Luis Amaral, Yun Huang, Zeina Atrash, Will Barley, Young JI Kim, Mike Stringer, Jordi Duch, Dean Malmgren, Meikuan Huang.
USC: Peter Monge, Janet Fulk, Drew Margolin, Allie Noyes, Katya Ognyanova, Matt Weber, Nina O'Brien, Courtney Schultz, Cindy Shen, Lauren Frank, Jessica Gould, Bettina Heiss, Irmak Sirer, Roger Guimera, Marta Sales-Pardo
VOSS: Understanding and enabling network dynamics in virtual communities
funded by the National Science Foundation, 2008-2011