Collaboration is an activity which is fundamentally situated within social networks where a network is considered as a linkage between two communicating nodes. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that collaboration theory stands to gain immeasurably from the ongoing analysis of the process of collaboration from a social networking point of view.
Some initial questions:
- How can collaborative networks be evaluated? What makes a good collaborative network?
- What charactersitics of networks lead to actual collaboration? (for example organisations and institutions may develop familiarity with Partnership working, but perhaps this is very different from collaboration within looser networks?)
- How can collaborative networks be supported with real resources when these tend to go instead to more traditional forms of organisation?