Exploring the Use of Wikis for Information Sharing in Interdisciplinary Design

Abstract

Interdisciplinary design is challenging, in large measure, because of the difficulty in communicating and coordinating across disciplines. Many tools have been developed and used to support information sharing in design, and the use of WWW technology is becoming increasingly important for the sharing of information. Wikis, in particular, have been claimed to support collaboration and information sharing. The backing for this claim, however, has not been rigorously assessed and to date few empirical studies have appeared in the literature. For my dissertation, I am conducting a field study of interdisciplinary design projects, seeking to discover how wikis enable information sharing in software development projects. The research findings will expand our understanding of information sharing behavior of design professionals. It will also provide empirical evidence on the use of wikis in design work, which will be used to develop guidelines on the effective use of wikis to support design collaboration.