My colleague at Mancomm Performance Inc, Pierre Harvey, uses a term to describe his field of study and work – Communautique. In North America, some people call this Community Networking, but Pierre’s definition means more than this English term conveys. He says that Communautique comes from the terms communication, community and networking, plus nautique or nautical/navigation. Communautique can be defined as the applied science of the analysis, design, co-creation and deployment of knowledge and understanding via networks. There is a strong cultural component as well.
Communautique is a multidisciplinary applied social science that links information sciences and communications theory. Communautique systems are not designed and built once, like traditional knowledge management systems, but provide a reference framework and a network architecture development cycle that adapts to the emergent needs of individuals and groups. It is the kind of methodology that leads to the creation of a network of "small pieces, loosely joined", instead of a monolithic system that individuals have to adapt to.
Blogs, wikis and socio-constructivist learning systems like Moodle are the current tools of choice for my colleagues who practice communautique. What I would like is a better term in English than community networking. Is there already one that I don’t know? Any ideas for a new term?
