Computing Support for Problem Solving in Virtual Communities of Practice

MARIA CLARA CASALINI; ELSA ESTEVEZ; TOMASZ JANOWSKI

JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Iberoamerican Science & Technology Education Consortium

Lugar: La Plata; Año: 2007 vol. 7 p. 52 - 58

1666-6038

The paper presents a formal model for a knowledge repository shared by members of a Virtual Community of Practice (VCPs), describes how the repository can be used to underpin collaborative problem solving, and how to build computer support for such processes. The repository comprises the resources used and developed by VCPs particularly through problem solving. As a case study, the paper illustrates how the problem solving process and the underlying repository can be applied in disaster prevention and handling. The repository and the process are formallydescribed using the RAISE Specification Language.