Animation of collaborative tools : restraints and enablers.

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

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

• 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

• 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)

• 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.