Current Projects

- Global Usability Knowledge Management (GUKM)
This project investigates the potential for sharing usability testing knowledge.

- Habitat Tracker
This project studies the use of technology to create a community of informal learners in a museum setting. It involves the use of mobile devices to help visitors journal their experience and observations during a museum visit.

- Renewable Energy Research Portal
This project is being carried out in collaboration with the College of Communication and Information's Information Institute. It will identify, organize, and make available via a web portal, research generated as part of the Florida Energy Systems Consortium (FESC) effort as well as other selected related information resources and tools as identified by FESC participants.

News and Events

- May, 2010
A $1,156,497 grant has been awarded to support the development of the Habitat Tracker Project. More details will follow shortly.

- April, 2010
Dr Douglas visited a number of locations in Asia relevant to the GUKM project. Updates relevant to this will appear in featured labs section of the GUKM web site.

- Novemeber, 2009
Dr. Douglas served a one-month visiting professor appointment at Dalian Maritime University (DMU), China in fall 2009. During the visit, he gave several presentations to graduate students and faculty at the University. Dr Douglas is currently collaborating with Zhengjie Liu, Director Sino-European Usability Center (SEUC) at DMU on an edited book called “Global Usability”. >>read more

- August - September, 2009
Dr. Douglas served a one-month visiting professor appointment at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. During the visit, he gave keynote presentations at two events. The first event was an Industry Symposium on User-Centered Design, held in collaboration with the Philippine Ergonomics Society (PhilErgo) and the Philippines Institute of Industrial Engineers (PIIE). The second event was the 3rd National Engineering Research and Development for Technology Conference where he presented on interdisciplinary research and education. >>read more

- More News and Events

The Knowledge Communities Research Group is part of the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University.

KCRG conducts research on methods and tools that facilitate the creative construction, sharing, and reuse of knowledge among diverse groups of people. We have specific interests in: domain understanding, computer supported collaborative work, user-centered design, knowledge and information management, organizational learning and creative problem solving.

The center has conducted major research projects to investigate ways of using technology to increase the reuse and sharing of knowledge within the military. We have created a number of software prototypes that demonstrate new methods for sharing knowledge through the internet. We have also conducted a number of smaller research projects on issues ranging from the use of mobile computing in learning to participation in online classes. If you have any questions about our work or would like to access one of our prototypes, please send an email to Professor Ian Douglas.