The rapid advancement of web technologies, including web 2.0 and social media, has created the potential for effective collaborative networks to emerge. Using live web conferencing, social networking platforms, blogs, twitter and other emergent technologies, constellations of communities of practice can develop, overlapping and interacting in exciting, innovative and extraordinary ways. At the same time developments in social learning theory provide us with conceptual tools to help us make sense of these possibilities and leverage them more systematically.

This one-day conference will explore how technology can mediate and enhance the relationship between the academic community and the wider world. With a keynote presentation and interactive workshop from Dr Etienne Wenger, we will examine how online environments can act as boundary spaces for engagement, collaboration, and innovation between academics, practitioners, industry partners and other stakeholders, enabling informal and formal networks and communities of practice to emerge in ways impossible to imagine even just a few years ago.

Presentations will include a keynote and group workshop from Dr Wenger on Boundaries of Communities of Practice, Brian McCaul of the University of Leeds, Paul Lowe of the University of the Arts London (UAL), the JISC Trialling Collaborative Tools for Business and Community Engagement project team, and the Knowledge Transfer Partnership team from UAL. The day will also include networking opportunities and a participatory ‘ideas café' session to explore emergent themes from the day.

Please see http://collaborativetools4bce.jiscinvolve.org/events/mediating-boundaries for further details about the event.

Conference tag: #BCECOP