Groupware, Community, and Meta-Networks: the Collaborative Framework of EdNA (Education Network Australia)

Abstract

This paper describes evolving notions and expressions of community and networks in the context of educational culture which is engaged in the process of discovering the opportunities and challenges presented by Communications and Information Technologies (CITs). Supporting this focus is a brief analysis of socio-cultural change providing a context for presenting a case-study overview of Education Network Australia (EdNA), a government-sponsored ‘meta-network’ formally launched in Australia in 1997 primarily as an online Information Directory Service. In its current stage of development EdNA has firmed as a framework geared toward fostering collaboration and co-operation throughout the various education and training systems and sectors. As such, it is an exemplar of ‘Community Computing and Support Systems’ which extend collaborative computing beyond the conventional limits of groupware. A key success factor in its development has been the convergence of the structural opportunity inherent within any growing network with the need for strengthening and developing identity within and among related communities.