The reciprocity project: a P2P approach to collaborative environments for life-long learning

The Reciprocity project is an attempt to design new collaborative environments based on the criticisms of the more centralized approaches. The project uses the potential of new Internet peer-to-peer middleware to support fully distributed collective activities. Each activity is managed in a distributed approach, and is specified through a set of XML documents, in accordance with our metamodel for collaborative activity. Our motivations for developing this project include a desire to exploit the potential for a more active and collaborative learning process, and a need for the kind of inter-organizational exchanges that could lead to more learners becoming interested in the same topics. Our experience in the use of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) platforms has led us to think seriously about the social value of linking or exchanging learning resources and the necessity of collaborating across organizational boundaries. In these conditions, acknowledging the different actors´ contributions becomes essential in order to encourage and empower their participation.