Creating and Sustaining a Global Community of Scholars
Authors: Watson, Richard
Journal: MIS Quarterly (1994)
DOI: 10.2307/249616
<jats:p>Against the backdrop of a brief history of communities of scholars, the shortcomings of the current intellectual infrastructure are discussed in this paper. This system is deeply rooted in printed matter, the postal system, and physical knowledge stores. As a result of the deficiencies of this infrastructure, many scholars, practitioners, and students have limited opportunities to participate in creating and sharing information. The Internet is put forward as the foundation of a new intellectual infrastructure that will overcome many of the problems of the old system. The significant benefits to be gained from redesigning the intellectual infrastructure are discussed. Some of the possible implications for universities and scholarly careers are considered. We have an opportunity to transform the basic infrastructure of the MIS community. By changing the way we store, process, and distribute information, we can create a broader, more collaborative, and more productive community of MIS scholars, students, and practitioners.</jats:p> <jats:p>This paper first briefly traces the history of scholarly communities and examines their development of an infrastructure for knowledge cr…