Liverpool Roadshow - Academic Networking: How can Web 2.0 technologies enhance Virtual Research Environments?
What benefits might the rapidly developing 'Web 2.0' world of social networking sites, user-generated content, and instant messaging bring to researchers and research communities? Are there features of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and all the rest which could contribute to the growth of knowledge?
This session reports on a recent ESRC project which explored how new 'Web 2.0' approaches and tools could be used by groups of researchers, and how these could be used to enhance existing Virtual Learning and Virtual Research Environments. As a research and development project, it was able not only to better understand the working practices of researchers, but also to engage them in designing, building and evaluating prototype web tools: which will be demonstrated. The session will give participants a chance to discuss their experiences of using web tools to support their own practice, and to suggest future areas for development.