“Do you know a similar project I can learn from?” Self-monitoring of Communities of Practice in the Cultural Sciences Ralf Klamma, Marc Spaniol, and Matthias Jarke Lehrstuhl Informatik V, RWTH Aachen University Ahornstr. 55, D-52056 Aachen, Germany {klamma|mspaniol|jarke}@cs.rwth-aachen.de Abstract There is an overwhelming number of digital media sup- ported projects in the cultural sciences on the internet. Project managers and participants face the question if they are doing the right things right. Most of them are not trained digital media designers nor are they trained com- puter and network specialists. Costly consultancy is not an alternative due to the lack of financial support for such ac- tivities. The answer on these problems is as in many other cases to get support from the community. Therefore, it is crucial to find people doing similar things. In this paper we introduce MAVIS, an internet based community information system currently containing information about more than 1.500 projects, websites, discussion groups and newsletters all originated in the cultural sciences. Within a theoretic framework of working and learning in the cultural sciences we try to identify different levels of similarities for cultural science projects that may be useful for the community. 1. Introduction “Do you know a similar project I can learn from?” For a project manager of a digital media supported project in the cultural science, this may be a crucial question. But whom to ask, if you do not have the money to pay consultants or to hire professional web designers and computer network specialists? People interested in cultural sciences may be interested to contribute to an existing project if they only know what projects are doing similar things. In the col- laborative research center on “Media and Cultural Commu- nication” within the subproject on “Networked Multimedia Information Systems in Cultural Science Communities” we as computer scientists were asked often to realize dedicated information systems (IS) for cultural scientists during the last six years. In the last years we have learned a lot about the creation and utilization of networked information sys- tems in the cultural sciences [6, 11]. We often used the term ‘project’ interchangeable with ‘community of practice (CoP)’. Projects in the cultural sciences have not necessar- ily a specified end, but also include legitimate peripheral participation of people who seek for projects and want to participate. This and other features make them very compa- rable to CoP [22]. In this paper we present a theoretical framework for working and learning in media-supported CoP in the cul- tural sciences. Based on this framework we present our collaborative self-monitoring system for CoP in the cultural sciences called MAVIS. The system consists of a reposi- tory for the systematic analysis of CoP and a web interface for collaboration on the internet. Different ways to repre- sent and present similarity of CoP are discussed. The paper closes with a summary and an outlook on further research. 2. Theoretical framework for media-supported communities of practice Snow differentiates between two different trends in col- laboration and learning within scientific communities [20]. First, the ‘linear type’ of learning that is goal-oriented and transmission-centered. This means, old information in sci- entific communities is being replaced by new one as soon as this appears. Second, there is a ‘non-linear type’ of learn- ing. This type is media centric and reflects working prac- tices of cultural scientists. It does not replace old infor- mation but keeps it and might use it later on. Here, infor- mation is not simply transmitted for learning, but it is pre- sented in its current context. Our research has given us a detailed insight into working practices of cultural scientists. The description and (loose) classification of medial artifacts is probably the most important part in the methodological perception process of cultural scientists. This means that a continuous perception of activities in the cultural sciences is necessary for them. The question so long in our research within the collaborative research center was: How can we