From Clio Infrastructure

Virtual Knowledge Studio

The Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences (KNAW) supports researchers in the humanities and social sciences in the Netherlands in the creation of new scholarly practices and in their reflection on e-research in relation to their fields. A core feature of the Virtual Knowledge Studio is the integration of design and analysis in a close cooperation between social scientists, humanities researchers, information technology experts and information scientists. This integrated approach provides insight in the way e-research can contribute to new research questions and methods.

Supporting and studying collaboratories is a key element in the VKS research mission. The humanities and social sciences are a particularly interesting area to study the development of scientific and scholarly collaboration because the variation of forms of collaboration and non-collaboration is so huge. Virtually every possible configuration is practiced in one field or another. The Studio research focuses on the way new media interact with forms of collaboration and communication. It moreover aims to support scholars with building new forms of collaboration (eg. collaboratories) and communication (eg. new Web site conceptions). A key issue concerns the ways the dynamics of collaboration are affected by mediation by digital communication networks. How does the technological possibility intersect with traditional human needs for communication? The implications of collaborative work for the resulting knowledge products will also be studied. How are forms of knowledge affected by the way they need to be communicated? Which types of intellectual work seem amenable to virtualisation and digitisation?

The Virtual Knowledge Studio will host a post doc to monitor online and offline communication within the research teams, to prepare and evaluate continued technical improvement of the collaboratory platforms, and to support the hub leaders in improving communication with their teams.

Also, the VKS will develop, in close cooperation with the researchers, the adaptations of the Gapminder and StatPlanet visualization tools.

The VKS currently has 14 full time members, honorary and visiting fellows and collaborators in national, EU and international research and teaching projects. Located at the Cruquiusweg, in the Eastern Docklands of Amsterdam, the VKS is hosted by the IISH, an institute of the KNAW. The Erasmus Virtual Knowledge Studio, developed in partnership with the University of Rotterdam constitutes the first campus site and has begun its activities in the academic year 2006-2007. The Maastricht Virtual Knowledge Studio, the second campus site, opened its doors in autumn 2007.