Animation of collaborative tools : restraints and enablers.
Card's author :
Outils-réseaux
Card's type of licence :
Creative Commons BY-SA
Description :
Auteurs : Association Outils-Réseaux et tous ses stagiaires
Crédits illustrations sous licence Creative Commons : CC-By Outils-Réseaux - CC-By Ell Brown - CC-By Cea - CC-By Marc Smith
What restrains
- Lack of participation
- At tools level
- At facilitator's level
- At project level
- Lack of time
What enables
- At people's level
- At tools level
- At organisation level
- At projects level
- The 9 laws of cooperation
1. What restrains
Main pitfall : lack of participation (non-collaborative situation)At people's level
- Lack of time : to handle the tools, to use them
- Fear of other people's opinion, of judgement (from peers), of being ridiculous
- Problem with writing, with the language
- Disconnection with real life (too virtual, which person(s) and which project(s) are behind the tool ?
- Difficulty to change one's practices to adopt those of the group (resistance to change)
- Problems of copyrights, intellectual property, fear that information might be stolen, Fear of losing power by sharing information.
- Difficulty in handling tools, technical fear :
- fear of difficulty
- fear with web tools
- computer = complicated
- heterogeneousness of the group with the handling of tools.
- A difficult access to internet :
- slow connection
- obsolete software
- Difficulty to get logged in :
- loss of the password
- loss of the web address
- Lack of motivation for the project, members don't make the link with their own personal interests :
- fear of misunderstanding messages
- habit of a centralized working
- institutional environment
At tools level
- Fear of tools, of difficulty, of an not enough ergonomic interface : the computer is a problem.
- Equipment, obsolete connexion
- Protection, identification.
- Not adapted needs.
- An implementation that is not progressive enough, that doesn't take sufficiently into account the different stages of the group's life.
- Difficulty to translate texts with emotion and hidden meaning.
- Several tools for the same use.
- Need for a paper base, for concrete.
- Complicated Tools.
- One can't find how to participate.
- An evolution of tools that goes too fast (displays, features).
At facilitator's level
- Too many requests (urgent ! To validate, misled question).
- Omnipresence or absence of the facilitator.
- Messages too long, too many items of information , not enough transparency.
- Founder = gravedigger.
- Employee : the financing of the job overrides on the network's objectives.
- Not enough listening of the group's needs.
- The facilitator does himself instead of making do.
- Mixing up in the roles : management, leadership, facilitator.
At project level
- Ethical drift, risk of rupture.
- Institutional representation ( Fear of losing power by sharing information.).
- Demobbing : bad apprehension of involvement.
- Difficulty in perceiving concretely the projects, its results.
- Relevance of the project.
- Vocabulary : level of the shared jargon ?
- Complexity : members can't see the entirety of the project any more.
- Level of involvement that is too high.
- Lack of visibility: of the time required, of the project's interest, of its purpose.
- No facilitator.
- No tracks of the project's story.
The time
- Lack of time :
- for the handling of tools
- for the involvement in the project.
- Different rhythms: employees / volunteers.
2. What eases
At people's level
- Physical meetings, friendliness
- Esteem assessment, quotation of all contributors
- Mixing up of audiences (see forum)
- Reduction of the risk of participating, enabling exit and multi : -membership : simplified membership procedure, possibility of disengagement!
- Virtuous circle of motivation :
- Project / meaningful action
- Feeling of ability
- controllability :
- cognitive engagement
- perseverance
- success.
- Making up individual interest with collective interest.
- Showing the mechanism.
- Win-win strategy
- Questioning people on their objectives
- Welcoming new comers, sponsoring.
- Technical back up : knowing where to find the technical referent, getting instructions for use, assistance sections
At tools level
- Behaving rules
- Netiquette
- Progressive implementation
- Simplify !!! Hide features
- Instructions for use, assistance section, trainings...
At organisation level
Upload file Cea.jpg- 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
- GNU/Linux
Evaluation by esteem
- Tela : Project of compiling botanical articles (25674 articles)
- De Boissieu Henri - Un acer hybride nouveau pour la flore française. - 1912 - dendrologie, plante hybride, acer x bormulleri, localité, p. 77-78 - Société Botanique de France, Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France, Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. (1904), Tome 59 - Fascicule 1 - Saisie : Jean TIMBAL -Art. n°13807.
- Delahaye Thierry, Henze Gaston, Lequay Arthur - Les orchidées de Monthoux - 1996 - Savoie, Avant-pays, Acéracées, acer monspessulanum, Fabacées, Argyrolobium zanonii, p. 15-19 - Départ./Région : 73 - Société Mycologique et Botanique de Chambéry, Bull. de la sté Myco et Bota de la Région Chambérienne, N°1 - Saisie : Sylvie SERVE - Art. n°479.
- Delahaye Thierry, Lequay Arthur, Prunier Patrice - Les découvertes botaniques de nos sociétaires en 1996 - 1997 - Savoie, violacées, Viola collina, loranthacées, Viscum album, acéracées, acer monspessulanum, joncacées, Juncus arcticus, liliacées, Erythronium dens-canis, p. 31-32 - Départ./Région : 73 - Société Mycologique et Botanique de Chambéry, Bull. de la sté Myco et Bota de la Région Chambérienne, N°2 - Saisie : Sylvie SERVE - Art. n°495.
Minimizing needs at the beginning
- Linus started by re-using codes and ideas of Minixa (the whole of Minix code has been given up or completly re-wrote since)
- The "Cathédrale et Bazar " example : Fetchmail based on popclient and Fetchpop
- Tela :
- 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.
Auteurs : Association Outils-Réseaux et tous ses stagiaires
Crédits illustrations sous licence Creative Commons : CC-By Outils-Réseaux - CC-By Ell Brown - CC-By Cea - CC-By Marc Smith