Virtual Communities: Analysis and Design Support

Information systems engineering for design or knowledge communities is characterized by the fact that these communities constantly monitor themselves and initiate repair processes (i.e. re-design and community learning) when disturbances occur. In this paper, we present ATLAS, a digital media information systems engineering environment that takes systematic advantage of the productive role of such disturbances which typically occur when designers recombine digital artefacts for new applications. The approach is based on interdisciplinary research on the mutual impact between media change, knowledge organization and cultural communication conducted in Germany's Collaborative Research Center on Media and Cultural Communications. The approach has been validated in an advanced chat tool for aphasics.