However, this week we will already start with a demonstration and discussion of how to build a simple and user-friendly web-based environment for collaboration between researchers. Some of you may know the generic Wiki system which allows a distributed community of people to author complex webs of ideas and documents together. A good example of what can be achieved in this way is the Wikipedia, a free encycopedia written by volunteers from all over the world: http://www.wikipedia.org.
There exist many versions of wiki with different functionalities. Marko has quickly made a wiki web for discussion among ECCO researchers, which he will demonstrate, but there are many ways to improve on this first proof-of-concept. Other ECCO members (Klaas, Mixel, ...) too have experience with these kinds of environment. The aim of the discussion is to look at the pros and cons of different approaches, and to gather some general ideas for how to organize an efficient and user-friendly wiki for ECCO.
So our program for the next weeks looks as follows (all meetings take place in room 3C 204 on Thursday starting at 17h30)
Dec. 9: Marko Rodriguez and others: Demonstration and discussion of collaboration environments on the web
Dec. 16: Francis Heylighen: The origins of organization. A general introduction to the ECCO theme
Dec. 23: Carlos Gershenson: Self-organizing traffic lights: a simple simulation of the mediated emergence of cooperation
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Francis Heylighen Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group Free University of Brussels http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
