React2008 Rationale
About
The following are some early explanations of the rationale behind the design of the react2008 writers workshop process. Much of the following is based on aspects of the earlier REACT process.
The Aims
The aims of react2008 are
- Increase the level of scholarship of L&T amongst CQUni staff
- Increase the publications
- Increase ability of staff to write and research in this area
- Increase the diversity of perspective of the people doing the writing
Assumptions
Some of the assumptions on which it is based
- Diversity of opinion, properly harnessed, is good and improves the quality and quantity of outcomes
- The writers workshop model from the design patterns community works very well in terms of collaborative commenting on papers
- That Web 2.0 tools can be in someway harnessed to enhance this process.
- That beginning writers of research papers need a bit more scaffolding than that provided in a simple writers workshop
- That a fixed process involving a group of people, but with minimal inter-dependence, can effectively generate the benefits of diversity while minimising the costs of group work with high levels of inter-dependence
- The fixed process will help develop a common vocabulary - which is important for the group.
- That having a common goal (a particular publication/conference) will also aid in that vocabulary and group cohesiveness
