T2. Building Environments for Virtual Communities The Internet has given rise to new forms of online community. For example, there are many examples of communities of bloggers, and chatroom users who communicate frequently and share at least one common topic of interest but rarely, if ever, meet face-to-face. From a computer science perspective, it is interesting to know what kind of communities exist, and what kind of software will best support new and existing communities. Churchill, G., Girgenson, A., Nelson, Lee, A. (2004). Blending digital and physical spaces for ubiquitous community participation, Communications of the ACM, 47(2), 38 – 44. [Good overview: find it in the ACM digital library. See also the rest of the special issue in the same place.] Ellis, D., Oldridge, R., Vasconcelos, A. (2004). Community and Virtual Community. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 38, 145-186. [background] Assignment Deliverables In this assignment you must select ONE of the topics mentioned above, and produce a report that includes the following: A. A broad overview of current research in the topic area selected based on current published literature (about 400 words). - Write a short summary appropriately cited and referenced (Harvard standard); - Sources should be clearly relevant to the topic issue. B. Evaluation of the literature searches conducted (about 300 words): - List and illustrate techniques used, successes and problems/issues that arose with the searches conducted; - List the range of articles found (Harvard referenced); - A table showing a comparison between the papers used Authors Research Question Primary Secondary Research Methodology - Explain how and why you would use different types of publications (books, journal articles, Web, conference papers) for the topic selected. C. Analysis of THREE relevant publications by different authors for your selected project area (about 400 words): - For each publication, provide a complete (Harvard) reference, and answers to the attached question sheet entitled “Analysis of Research Paper Text”; - Answers to questions should be supported by justification through citing of examples, and giving of illustrations. D. Completed MSc Project Proposal form in the style specified by the SCIT guidelines for MSc Computer Science project proposal (about 800 words). - The main (non-trivial) research question, followed by TWO related sub-questions that together would help to produce answers to this particular research enquiry; - Provide a justification that says clearly why you have chosen this issue and includes both intrinsic & extrinsic factors; - Literature review based on the research question; - Research methodology: • Outline how you intend to approach the proposed research project. • Include a theoretical and contextualised justification of your chosen research paradigm; • Give a detailed account of your approach to data collection; • Outline the methods you will use and justify them; • Suggest techniques for data interpretation; • Explain within your proposal how you intend to deal with issues such as subjectivity, objectivity, triangulation sampling, piloting etc. - Ethics • Consider any ethical issues that may be relevant to your proposed study; • Use the SCIT Ethics guidelines and Forms applied to your specific project proposal context. E. Project Summary and Self-Evaluation (about 500 words) - A set of PowerPoint slides summarising your research questions and literature review findings; - An evaluation of your suitability for conducting the research programme you have outlined; - A reflection on the process you have gone through to complete this assignment and an evaluation of the effectiveness of this process;