Vol. 28 No.7, Summer 2001

SCOUG Spring Workshop: Building Information Communities May 4, 2001

As part of the budget process at my previous organization, information professionals were required to write a paragraph justifying attendance at professional development seminars for the coming fiscal year. Although I didn’t know the theme ahead of time, I petitioned attendance at the SCOUG (Southern California Online Users Group) Spring Workshop, on the grounds that "I always get rejuvenated when I attend this annual event." I was not disappointed this year, as I joined some 100 attendees, exhibitors and speakers gathered at the Hilton Burbank Airport to deliberate "Building Information Communities." A few of the day’s many highlights are noted below:

Scott Kurnit, founder About.com (formerly the Mining Company: "Digging up gems on the Internet and polishing them"), spoke about the website’s 700 different communities and environments lead by experts, who write articles on topics and then let the "community" talk about them on chats and message boards. Information without the exchange is not a community, according to Kurnit.

Each community on the site is similarly structured—an aspect that Kurnit noted is extremely important—so that users are comfortable moving from one area to another. Tools should make a website as easy to use as opening a book, but tools aren’t what make a site great. Instead, it’s the environment, trust and experience that are significant.

It’s not about the technology; the first part of community is the people. Several speakers throughout the day reiterated this observation.

Vicki Taylor, Senior VP of Library Research, Capital Group Research, Inc.,

spoke about the information community in her firm’s global corporate environment.

Capital Group has over 5000 employees with 11 research offices around the world.

There is no "headquarters" per se to ensure that the US isn’t perceived as head of the community.

The Research Library (which hasn’t changed its name because it has good brand recognition) employees 22 Business Research Specialists in the U.S. and Europe to assist analysts with secondary research. The Library maintains an archives of research reports, and its current big project is leading the redesign of the firm’s intranet.

Employees can belong to various communities at once, e.g. their own departments; with groups of associates who have similar roles; and with colleagues who deal with the same subject matter. Some communities are formed to address a specific problem, and many communities go through life cycles.

One of the Research Library’s most important services is connecting people within the company. The firm’s work environment promotes community almost naturally, and the library utilizes and takes advantage of it. Librarians have always known it is good to share, and now other people are starting to realize it.

Dr. Jose-Marie Griffiths, CIO of the University of Michigan

http://www.cio.umich.edu/office/griffiths/

According to Dr. Griffiths, a community consists of people with (1) common interests and goals (2) a common sense of good and (3) trust and respect among members. In a highly-centralized organization it is easy to build community. However, in a decentralized one a mandate from the top is usually needed to bring people together.

A challenge to the idea of community in universities is that staff members are often not acknowledged as much as they should be; instead, professors and students are considered more important. However, staff members are often the most loyal to the institution, while faculty members tend to be more loyal to their disciplines.

Dr. Griffiths observed that the function of librarians is evolving, and some new roles include the following:

Publisher of books/user guides to knowledge resources
Expedition Guide/Knowledge Navigator
Knowledge Interpreter/Knowledge Analysts (synthesizers of information)
Knowledge Prospector (finding nuggets)

For more information on SCOUG, visit its website: www.scougweb.org

Susan M. Hendrickson

Jet Propulsion Laboratory