This was a poster presentation given at the 2007 IA Summit by Jill Christ, Monique Escamilla, Alessandra Brophy, and Grace Lau.

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What is Informatics? orm ms
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Defining “informatics” proves challenging. In general, informatics
definitions are broad and do not incur specific meaning until Human-
applied by particular informatics communities (i.e., medical
professionals, computer scientists, sociologists). To further
Public Health
Informatics
Computer
Interaction
Information Usability Study
Seeking
complicate definition, informatics is often composed of various Data Flow Our usability study was based on the heuristic evaluation model
Behavior proposed by Jakob Nielson (2005). We recruited four subjects
disciplines of study. These broad definitions can complicate how
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the value of informatics is promoted both within informatics ati e who represented different levels of computer experience, as well
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communities and from the “outside” world. We grappled with Inf ite as motivations for using the wiki. We first asked users to discuss
defining informatics to clarify the definition for ourselves and for rch Medical their expectations of the wiki and then asked them to complete
A Information
our fellow Information Studies students. This wiki aims to Informatics three tasks. Usability testing indicated that PBwiki!s software
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promote self-definition through community discussion. By suffered from limitations, most notably, the use of the SideBar as
Visual primary content navigation. Another software limitation was the
promoting a user-centered perspective and participatory design Nursing
and maintenance, we initiate the conversation for the informatics Informatics Hello pronounced display of the functionality toolbar across the top of
Informatics
community at UCLA to begin defining itself in a format that can the wiki. Our usability study results also encouraged our group to
grow and change. Community re-evaluate how to categorize content in the SideBar.
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Why a Wiki? Inf eri
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Blogs, wikis, and other forms of online social networking act as ito g
Digital iqu tin
valuable information channels, as well as virtual "places" where Ub pu
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like-minded individuals can interact with one another. In Content C om Classes
particular, a wiki can promote self-definition through community
discussion because all members can contribute and edit content.
We developed the UCLA informatics wiki with the intent of Clin Ethnography
facilitating collaboration, democratic contribution, and Inf ica User-
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interactivity. We came to realize that this wiki had the potential to
extend beyond our physical community at UCLA to become a
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resource for the global informatics community. Because there are few resources for informatics practitioners,
aks Knowledge we looked at other successful models that attempt to bridge
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fks disciplines related to information technology. The most
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f successful model we found was the STS Wiki. We came to
Resources realize that the UCLA Informatics Wiki had the potential to
extend beyond our physical community at UCLA to become a
Alessandra Brophy resource for the global informatics community, similar to how the
STS Wiki functions as a global resource for the science and
Jill Detrick technology communities. We envision the UCLA Informatics Wiki
being populated to the extent of the STS Wiki, and we hope it
Monique Escamilla will serve a similar function in increasing knowledge about
Grace Lau
Jean-François Blanchette
informatics and bringing informatics practitioners together.
UCLA Informatics Wiki
http://uclainformatics.pbwiki.com
University of California, Los Angeles © UCLA Informatics March 23, 2007