LES CAHI ERS DU NUM ÉRI QUE VOLUM E 8 – N° 1-2 / 2 0 12

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LES CAHI ERS DU NUM ÉRI QUE

VOLUM E 8 – N° 1-2 / 2 0 12

7 CONTRIBUTORS

9 Introduction–J^ÉRÔMED^INET 15 Information seeking as dialogue

ANDRÉ TRICOT,PAULINE COMTAT

It is possible to consider information seeking as a dialogue between a reader/user and a document (or documentation system). The concepts of relevance and interaction are shared by the research areas of information seking and dialogue. Analyzing the similarities and differences between these two concepts in these two areas, should provide a useful theoretical and methodological framework for the investigations of collaborative information seeking. To meet this challenge, the paper examines empirical and theoretical literature on three concepts, relevance, interaction and collaborative information seeking.

39 Modeling ethics of collaborative research of information.

Case of the doctor-patient-information system relationship JÉRÔME BÉRANGER

The digital world is not an austere universe consisting only of numbers. The technologies are not just instruments, they are also carriers of affordances involving values and interpretations of the surrounding reality. All technology carries with it an important ethical burden. Every person, every tool has therefore an ethic, comes a message, a meaning of its own. Users perceive this digital space angles of view that may be real, fictional or symbolic. Now, Human-Machine communication is an important issue in the Doctor- Patient relationship. This implies the need for amplification of a dialogue and human observation between practitioner and patient.

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220 Les cahiers du numérique – n° 1-2/2012

From this observation, we established a model approach ethics that seeks to provide intelligibility, that is to say a sense of the phenomenon. For this, we relied on the four principles of bioethics:

Autonomy, Beneficence, Non-maleficence and Justice. This model is a simplified representation which provides individuals with different ways of understanding what they make, their organization and the environment around them. The advantage of this model is to enable a comprehensive analysis of a collaborative research of information and Human-Machine interface or “info-sphere” that combines both technology and ethics. There is then a triangulation of the Doctor- Patient relationship with a technological device that becomes a full partner in the management of care. The harmony and balance of this health relationship including the information system is achieved through dialogue and compromise between the technical streamlining, the one hand, and human consciousness, on the other.

63 Asking for information in a discussion forum. The example of Ado.fr N^ADIAG^AUDUCHEAU

The aim of this study is to identify the importance and the properties of the information requests in a web forum of adolescents, and to describe the interactions of searching/offering information. A sample of messages from the forum Ado.fr was analyzed. The opening messages (of a thread) analyzed are often information requests (69,5%). Two main categories are observed. The most important is a request of opinion on a private subject (need for peer’s opinions), the second is a request of precise and verifiable information (need for expertise). The analysis of the threads shows that different kinds of exchanges are observed, some of them imply co-construction of responses between the seeker and the information providers or between the providers.

97 Knowledge brokering in the digital era. Empirical analysis of the emerging practices in the health sector in Canada MOKTAR LAMARI

Knowledge brokering is an emerging best practice strategy in knowledge translation and exchange in the health sector. Knowledge brokering is defined as being an activity undertaken by intermediaries (individuals, organizations, networks, etc.) acting as

“connectors” to link producers and end users of new knowledge.

Despite the increase in research dealing with the importance of

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Abstracts 221 knowledge brokering in the health sector, little is still known about the profiles and practical practices of knowledge brokers. This article provides an empirical portrait of knowledge brokering in the digital era and provides new evidences on the effectiveness of these new medium of knowledge transfer. It goes beyond the rhetoric and the opposing anecdotal evidence to respond to three questions: i) What is the profile of knowledge brokers? ii) How does knowledge brokering work in the health sector in Quebec, Canada? And iii) What determines the effectiveness and the impact of knowledge brokering.

The data used come from a survey carried out in 2011, among a representative sample of knowledge brokers using Web 2.0 technologies, in Canada. The theory of knowledge absorptive capacity is used as the analytical reference to describe the «black box»

of the knowledge brokering process.

The authors of this article provide a detailed profile of knowledge- brokering activities (stages, behavior, support, etc.), brokers’

individual attributes (age, gender, experience, training, preferences, etc.), as well as exchanged-knowledge specific attributes.

This study shows the complexity and diversity of the knowledge brokers’ tasks and emphasizes the importance of the training and support required to develop brokers’ competencies and the collaborations required by the digital media coverage of knowledge as well as by the mobilization of evidences for decision making and public health policies.

131 Reflections on the analysis of collaborative information practices N^ABILB^ENA^BDALLAH

Few studies in information sciences have focused on collaborative information practices and consequently, we do not have a deep understanding of actions and operations that can be undertaken, for example, by a group of people acting together to search, retrieve, and use information. Information retrieval is generally treated as an essentially individual activity, as evidenced by the majority of information retrieval models where the individual is at the heart of the modeling process. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework based on activity theory to study collaborative information seeking. We rely on the literature in information science and other disciplines where the activity theory is used to determine the important elements to consider in the study of a collaborative research activity of information. The theoretical framework

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222 Les cahiers du numérique – n° 1-2/2012

developed is used to analyze a case of collaborative information seeking where small groups of students are involved in the implementation of a collective effort to produce a literature synthesis on a given topic.

159 Socialbookmarking practices in the field of education.

Challenges and tensions M^ICHELED^RECHSLER

The web has become participatory and new practices of categorizing information based on communities, collective strategies for indexing and sharing online resources emerge. The domain of education is particularly concerned. Based on the theory of connectivism from George Siemens, the activity theory we analyze the socialbookmarking practices for education. We show that these spaces for preserving and sharing educational resources in these communities, may be prefered for “personnal knowledge management”, and developing professional skills. The PLE (Personal Learning environment) has its relevant place. Despite the tensions involved, we can define new forms of training that education systems cannot ignore in the 21 st century.

187 A collaborative information retrieval model – applied to economic intelligence

V^ICTORO^DUMUYIWA,A^MOSD^AVID

Users’information behaviour studies have shown that users collaborate during information gathering process. With the incredible progress in the Internet and Web technology, there is an increase in collaboration activities centred on information production and retrieval. This paper aims at developing the concept of collaborative information retrieval especially in economic intelligence context. A collaborative information retrieval model was developed. This model is made up of phases necessary for the success of collaborative activity in information retrieval.

219 Summary/Abstracts