FACEBOOK for CoP of Researchers: Identifying the Needs and Evaluating the Compatibility

摘要: Communities of practice (CoPs) are increasingly capturing the interest many fields such as business companies, education and organizations. Many CoPs were developed for people who have common in healthcare, agriculture environment, teaching. However, there is lack COPs dedicated researchers. This research aims to explore appropriateness Facebook (FB) a platform serving CoP To achieve this goal, first we identify needs researchers within UAE context. Consequently, adopted qualitative approach elicit needs. We applied grounded theory method analyze data. The results analysis showed seven main needs: collaboration, debating, awareness/ notification, reference management, cross search, customization, tracking, user orientation. Secondly, evaluated compatibility FB features identified Although found that covers most needs, few which not met successfully so raised some technical practical issues, been highlighted paper.