What is opensTeam?
sTeam (structuring information in a team) is an open-source environment for the structuring and maintenance of virtual knowledge spaces. It provides a wealth of different mechanisms to support communicative and cooperative learning and work processes.
structuring of virtual knowledge spaces
Virtual knowledge spaces combine synchronous and asynchronous forms of collaboration with the administration of hypermedia documents. Students and teachers meet in virtual knowledge areas, where they share and modify arrange, annotate and link documents through mutual views. This form of open, collaborative interaction with materials is supported by suitable methods of access permissions and user group management.
The main focus of sTeam is on techniques for distributed knowledge management and establishing of an arena for internet-based methods of cooperation. The concept of self-administration enables the creation of individual knowledge structures for single users as well as for user groups and the development of virtual communities. Mechanisms for social awareness, synchronous whiteboards and cooperative construction of knowledge also form the focus of our research.
sTeam has been developed at the University of Paderborn (Germany) supported by funding of the DFN (Deutsches Forschungs-Netz – german research network) and is currently an integral part of our research in the area of e-learning infrastructures.
Further information is available in a short description of the system.