Mission
Our mission is to provide international service and contribute to new knowledge by using mixed methods social science research to explore the socio-technical infrastructure required to support geographically distributed collaboration.
Overview
The Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (Cotelco) is a joint social science research center in the School of International Service (SIS) at American University and the School of Information Studies (iSchool) at Syracuse University, and is organized to explore the socio-technical infrastructure required to support geographically distributed collaboration and knowledge work, particularly between developed and developing countries. Cotelco is also an affiliated center of the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI): Centers of Innovation on Disability.
Research Agenda
Our broad research agenda uses mixed-methods approaches to investigate three inter-related themes. The first theme takes an interdisciplinary social science approach to explore the institutional mechanisms for global governance and international regime formation for the Internet and information and communication technology, with a particular focus on epistemic communities and transnational policy networks.
