Interdisciplinary Knowledge Sharing Based On Network

As the improvement and fine of the specialization of human activities, the knowledge is divided into many different fields. Clark(1995) identified over 8530 fields of knowledge, among which there are many barriers to interdisciplinary knowledge sharing, i.e., language, epistemology, methods and culture.This dissertation discusses the approach of interdisciplinary knowledge sharing from the angle of information behavior, informal communication in network environment, and community of practice. Interdisciplinary collaboration can be viewed as a information behavior. By analyzing the facets of information behavior and it's conceptual framework, we can understand what factors will influence the interdisciplinary knowledge sharing. Informal communication based on network is a kind of special communication today. Many barriers to interdisciplinary knowledge sharing can be conquered by this communication way. Online Community of Practice has been proposed as a way to facilitate interdisciplinary knowledge sharing and knowledge creating by allowing conversation and organization of material.Three tools are discussed,in order to realize effective interdisciplinary knowledge sharing, they are Blog, Wiki, and open ontology pilot. These informal communication tools are fit for different stages of interdisciplinary collaboration and allow researchers to establish social networks with different people and construct the community of practice.Blog can foster interdisciplinary knowledge sharing as a radically open conversational medium with low barriers to entry, and it also enables content related to emerging interdisciplinary field to be clustered and made visible much more efficiently than traditional publication system. Content of Wiki is managed by an open community and represents the community's agree-upon knowledge. It enables people with a common interest in an issue that does not fit neatly within a particular discipline to collaboratively create, share and structure their knowledge.Two tools (Blog and Wiki) are in existence already, but their value in interdisciplinary knowledge sharing has not been discussed. Open ontology pilot is a variety of Wiki. By constructing light-weight ontology collaboratively, it can efficiently structure interdisciplinary knowledge, and retrieval will be easier. Two prototypes are developed by reforming a traditional Wiki and utilizing semantic web technology.The effectiveness of the first two tools was assessed based on case studies and user survey. The value of third tool was analysed through the designed case.Last but not least, the dissertation compares the three tools and integrates them into a unified platform for further use, and points out the future works.