The ways in which knowledge is generated and shared are changing as digital technologies, practices, and cultures change. To grasp these changes, it’s necessary to better understand the nature and dynamics of the systems that support them.

Professor Paul Edwards has received a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation to mount a three-day workshop on Knowledge Infrastructures, to be held May 25-28 in Ann Arbor. 

The goal of the workshop is to advance and connect creative scholarship and practice in emerging forms of knowledge infrastructures. At a typical conference, participants present scholarly papers on finished work. At this workshop, the invited attendees will prepare short thought pieces designed to stimulate conversation and thought on topics such as new modes of sharing data, new forms of scientific and technical learning, and new models for scientific collaboration.

The international cohort of attendees will be drawn from educational institutions, think tanks, the private and public sectors, and foundations. If the first workshop is successful in generating new ideas and concepts for researching and building knowledge infrastructures, the organizers hope to make it an annual event.