Showing the group's activity : summary, reformulation, historical background, showing what is happening in sub-groups, regular news : summaries (TST)
Strong incentive to develop habits : only put reports on the wiki, make mistakes in the spelling of people's names on purpose
« Professional » facilitators :
emerging jobs
separating organization from facilitation
know how to be rather than know how to do
being in permanent alert
Synthesizing, reformulating, gardening
At project level
Propose an historical background, an notebook of events
Minimize the needs at the beginning : putting on line unfinished productions
Control critical tasks : compromise between flexibility and continuity of the system, the project must content itself with a minimum contributions
Work rather with thoughtfulness than with intention : and projects emerge by listening to the group, pinpointing objectives instead of expected results
Risk analysis : will of success or fear of failure ?
Definition of purposes and running (SAGACE matrix)
Clear objectives , charter
Productions : Free Licenses to turn them into common properties
The 9 laws of cooperation
Reduce participation risks
Lower the threshold of acting out
Non consumables goods and environment of abundance
Communities which last converge on cooperation
Evaluation by esteem
Minimizing needs at the beginning
Minimizing failure risks by controlling critical tasks
Time for opportunities
Never forget any of the rules !
Lowering the threshold of acting out
Acting out with human beings tallies with a rude fall
Free software :
Giving, before any other action, an a priori authorization for use and modification thanks to a license rather than imposing an authorization request is another example of elements which ease the acting out. (Jean-Michel Cornu)
Tela Botanica :
Registration is easy, licence and charge free.
Use of Forum and Wiki
Incentive to participation with simple exercises :
Make a mistake on purpose in the spelling of a person's name to have her react and encourage her to correct it by herself
Non consumables goods and environment of abundance
Tela Botanica : the Flora of Metropolitan France project
Stemming from the work of one person : work of naming and taxonomy on 75 000 names.
55 599 files modified by members of the community
Adding of 46 794 vernacular names (several languages)
Communities which last converge on cooperation
Joining very much upstream to avoid competition downstream.
GNU/Linux
GNU and Free Software Foundation : 1985
Linux : 1991
the Flora of Metropolitan France project : 2001
Evaluation by esteem
Tela : Project of compiling botanical articles (25674 articles)
Recovery of a synonymy work by M. Kerguelen on 75 000 names
recovery of numerous data bases constituted by amateurs.
Putting online unfinished documents because they can be improved by contributors. If the putting-online needs the completion of the document, the group's dynamics won't get under way.
Minimizing failure risks by controlling critical tasks
Brooks Law : "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later " : complexity increases as well as the number of exchanges and therefore as the square number of persons.
Tela Botanica :
The association contracts partnerships and et takes responsibility for the consequences
Employees are on duty and provide tools and services
Members of the community carry out plans and give sense to the network
The piloting committee operates coordination and validates decisions
Risk analysis
The fear of failure leads to a minimum risk-taking. One is then tempted to protect everything, and this is typical of today : everything is tagged, locked (in particular legally saying). For example, within administrations, there is a lack of opening which reflects a rigid mental functioning.
On the contrary, willing to succeed implies the implementation of means to reach the appointed aim. This approach refers to a mental model much open and dynamic.