The Emerge support project asked, can the use of participatory media and Web2.0 applications (and attitudes?) in learning technology R&D programmes encourage and facilitate both greater autonomy and self-direction in the participants on the one hand, as well as increasing collaborative, community-centred development on the other?

These questions can be re-expressed in terms of shifting centres of control; where greater individual user autonomy and self-direction is in respect to reduced institutional control and direction, of learning, of research and of community engagement. The first question for institutions becomes: to what extent are they comfortable with ceding certain amounts of control to individuals? The second question for institutions is, then, to what extent are they, as established communities willing to cede control to new communities? For individuals, the principal issue is to what extent do they subordinate their autonomy and self-direction to communities? And, then how much do they subordinate and to which communities?

The use of participatory media is multi-modal. In a Web2.0 environment the software becomes an important actor in the networks in which people participate. But the articulation between people and software is not only a question of interface design. The effective use of Web2.0 applications depends essentially on social networks. This raises questions of inclusion, exclusion and identity.

In the end, we see that the information literacy question is being dynamically redefined and that people valued the personal and professional development opportunities that were offered by the programme for themselves and for their own user communities.