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Copyright 1999. Association for the Advancement of Computing in
Education (AACE). Distributed via the Web by permission of
AACE.
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Dr. Erik WallinLund University, Dept of Informatics/Office for
Distance Education
Ole Rmers Vg 6, SE-223 63 Lund, SwedenTel: +46-46-222 8027, Fax:
+46-46-222 4528, E-mail: [email protected]
$EVWUDFW This paper describes work in progress to establish a
collaborative learningenvironment in the field of H%XVLQHVV, i.e.
Electronic Commerce and some other fields of modern business
informatics. The vision is for a virtual city with a community of
citizens thatinspires and mediates continuous learning and exchange
of experience through hands-ontraining and field experiments in
eBusiness. In this paper we will discuss some facilities andsets of
rules for collaboration in this learning environment, which is
called %XV\ &LW\.
,QWURGXFWLRQ
Collaboration in YLUWXDO space necessitates an artificial, time-
geographical FRQWH[Wsuch as a virtualclassroom with meeting hours,
to simulate a more conventional environment for working together.
It LVratherdifficult to collaborate if you don't know ZLWK ZKRP
ZKHUH ZKHQ KRZor ZK\ the collaboration should takeplace especially
if you don't even have D VHQVH RI SODFH, or a mental map of your
environment This paperdescribes work in progress to construct
different facilities and sets of rules for collaborative learning
in the fieldof eBusiness based on 7KH &LW\as a metaphor for the
context in which collaboration takes place.
%XV\ &LW\ /HDUQLQJ H%XVLQHVV E\ &UHDWLQJ H%XVLQHVV
%XV\ &LW\is a virtual city in formation, located nowhere and
everywhere as a web-site under construction.It will be opened for
"immigration" in January 2000 as an integrated learning environment
for a set of coursescurrently running as separate distance courses
at Lund University, e.g. General Business Informatics,
ElectronicCommerce and Business GIS. Busy City is based on a
specific concept for distance learning developed by theauthor: the
&RQYHUVLW\ concept, which is trademarked. It calls for an
advanced learning environment on theWeb with 7KH &LW\as a basic
metaphor and guiding design principle [Wallin 1998]. The
installation of Busy Cityas a Conversity in the field of eBusiness
paves the road for a four-tier implementation, including the
followingfacilities and support for collaboration [see Fig. 1]:
&DPSXV collaboration in D FODVVwith virtual classroom
facilities such as tools for online classmeetings, threaded
discussions, online lectures, bulletin boards etc
%XVLQHVV 5HVHDUFK 3DUN : collaboration in D SURMHFW with a
project workplace for each team includingtools for project
administration, task assignments, project timetables, sharing of
documents etc
0DUNHW collaboration in D YLUWXDO FRPSDQ\with support for
realistic eBusiness transactions includingtools for web-site
design, customer registration, payment services, delivery services
etc.
&LW\ +DOO : collaboration in D YLUWXDO FRPPXQLW\with support
for large meetings in a virtual conference
room and with tools for member administration, voting, zoning
and setting of access rights to differentfacilities and resources
in the city, e.g. intellectual property rights etc.The learning
process in Busy City is designed to support and enhance actively a
complete OHDUQLQJ F\FOH
in eBusiness [see Fig. 1], from the novice student to the
president of a virtual company who uses eCommerce inhis daily
transactions with his customers. The student may enrol at the
Campus (1) and take a course ineBusiness that has a number of group
work assignments. One of these might need the laboratory facilities
of atechnology provider established at the Business Research Park
(2). Here the student may engage in a project toset up a pilot
application of a new business idea or a new technology, e.g. an
Internet-Shop for virtual travels.The team has the option to
transform itself into a management staff of a virtual company that
is engaged in realeCommerce business on the virtual Market (3). The
running of this virtual company may provide experiences
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]
8/14/2019 Busy City Design issues
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that both the customers and the staff deem are relevant enough
to feed back into Busy City as a newestablishment, open also for
external customers (non-residents). The Community of Busy Citizens
at the CityHall (4) must take such a decision as it might influence
neighbours etc. The experience gained, the lessons learntand the
future potential of the virtual company, will be taken into
consideration in the design of a new course atthe Campus (1). In
this way, we have a learning cycle that accumulates both
theoretical knowledge and practicalknow-how into a common asset of
immaterial, intellectual capital that can be used in new learning
processes.During the cycle, Busy City evolves to better serve its
purposes as a home for life-long learning in eBusiness.
A dedicated JUDGXDWLRQ V\VWHPhas been developed to integrate
this learning process into the primarybusiness process of Busy City
to allow more formal careers within Busy City, e.g. a temporary
visitor thattransforms into a resident Busy Citizen [Wallin 1999].
From a business point of view, Busy City acts as D IDFWRU\ RI QHZ
YLUWXDO FRPSDQLHVwith the Community of Busy Citizens as the first
pilot market.
)LJXUH : The learning process and the four areas of
collaboration in Busy City.
&RQFOXVLRQV
7R OHDUQeBusiness in Busy City is WR FUHDWHand run eBusiness
processes - but first experimentally! Whatmakes Busy City unique
from other virtual business schools and learning environments is
that it goes beyond thetraditional "academic" campus concept. It
supports and integrates the students development from being a
noviceeBusiness student to the launch of a full-scale eCommerce
site for a new virtual company. There is no need toleave Busy City
to be able to fulfil this development - on the contrary. In a
similar situation, a traditional schoolwill have a big loss in
time, knowledge and human resources due to the fact that the
students have to leave theschool to be able to try out their
commercial projects somewhere else. Due to the logic of the
learning process inBusy City, there is a good chance that both the
student and the new virtual company will be fully prepared
forsuccessful business operations in the next Millennium.
5HIHUHQFHV
[Wallin 1998] Wallin, E. (1998). %XV\ &LW\ DQ RYHUYLHZ. CITY
Conversity AB, Lund.Available as a PowerPoint presentation at
http://busycity.ics.lu.se
[Wallin 1999] Wallin, E. (1999). "A business model for an online
learning community - the case of Busy Cit \W K 2QOLQH /HDUQLQJ
&RQIHUHQFH HXUR, Gloucestershire Business School, Cheltenham,
UK.
0DUNHW
Collaboration by making deals andsigning contracts as a
business
partner
Staff and Company
%XVLQHVV 5HVHDUFK 3DUN
Collaboration by working as a memberof a team in a project with
a commercialpotential
Team and Project
&LW\ +DOO
Collaboration by creating, sharingand managing community
assets
Citizen and Community
&DPSXV
Collaboration by participating in acourse and belonging to a
class
Class and Course
http://busycity.ics.lu.se/http://busycity.ics.lu.se/
