Open Collaboration Data Factories:
Open online communities (OOC) are significant drivers of innovation, create economic activity, and are linked to improved social well-being. Scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplines research OOCs to allow citizens to manage and grow OOCs. Methods that these researchers use include investigating how tools may be designed to support different modes of collaboration, developing theories of collaboration from rich qualitative methods, or using electronic trace data. While research contexts are identical, differences in data and methods leads to diffuse discourse across disciplines, publications, and communication. Issues of coherence within different communities studying the same data make discussion about a particular OOC difficult. A second challenge is the participation of individuals in multiple communities and the associated limitations of scholarship focused on single communities.