Evaluating Information Systems for Collaborative Wellness

We are refining a system for studying Collaborative Wellness (CW) developed by us for use in evaluating knowledge creation and information systems. CW is founded on reaching agreement between stakeholders on ways to address issues arising in complex environments and create the necessary knowledge to address these issues. Such a model is needed in the increasingly complex and dynamic environment now found in business and society. Creating, managing and disseminating knowledge is crucial to enabling organisations to adapt to change in their dynamic environments. Despite this, we found gaps in organisational knowledge creation theory for supporting fine grained studies of knowledge creation. The Collaborative Wellness System (CWS) is intended to address this situation. CWS treats collaborations of knowledge creators as social information systems. CWS has an adaptable framework of measures that may be deployed to suit the circumstances of a collaboration. The measures of CW record assessments of the usefulness of created knowledge relative to agreed stakeholder expectations. The system allows collaborative experiences to be shared and compared. CWS informs the development, application, tracking and refinement of improvements to existing information systems. The CWS presented in this paper has been validated in four case studies involving business and government agencies.