The first study on Shapeshifters was finished in spring this year. Claudia Deutsch, a student of knowledge management in Vienna researched quality indicators in a global knowledge society. Her work is about understanding what the users of Shapeshifters perceive as communication quality and how it is created and maintained. Here is an abstract in Claudia’s own words:

“Fundamentally, quality is seen as an event which has a real impact in the real world. It can be shown, that there are qualities such as certain common values, mutual appreciation and conscious interactions. Users interact through certain types of postings and generate knowledge that is relevant for microenterprise activity in the Creative Sector. Shapeshifters has a certain attitude towards quality which is communicated by the means of hands-on success stories and a Code of Honour that is available on the website. Consequently an environment for knowledge sharing and group identity is created.”

If you are interested in her research paper (so far only available in German) please email Claudia Deutsch directly: cd.claudia.deutsch@gmail.com