More Than a Meeting Place:Leveraging Online Tools for Impact

Tirza HollenhorstChristopher Johnson

ifPeople – Innovation for Peoplewww.ifpeople.net

Pegasus Conference | Seattle, WA | November 6, 2007

Learning Goals

Why should my organization bother with online collaboration? What do I need to know about designing my online collaboration project? What are the most important things I need to do to support community and successful collaboration online?

Footnote

Not delving in to the features of specific technologies in this presentation

Boundaries We are addressing cases of actual

interaction. Where there are relationships between users and their work (as opposed

to people working on the same problem together via the internet with no relation)

Flow of Presentation

Getting to Know the Landscape Narrowing Our Focus:

How? Examples Participative activity Lessons and concerns

Getting to Know Us

Survey

Who am I?

Believe in business as an engine for social change

− Leverage for transformation to sustainability ifPeople cofounder

− FairSource − business model based on remote collaboration− solving today's problems requires collaboration

Inspiring Futures cofounder

Why care about online collaboration?

5 major impacts of online collaboration: − Human knowledge and innovation− Business models− Humanitarian efforts− Coordinating change campaigns (political,

social)− Learning

Knowledge Generation

5.3 million encyclopedic entries in 100+ languages

Self-policing 75,000+ people edited 5

or more articles in Oct 2006

164+ million unique visitors in 12/2006

Business Models

Humanitarian efforts

Life...Online

Online Identity Today

FaceBook Originally a college-

age target...− 40+ million

registered users− 1% of all Internet

time on Facebook Used to coordinate

action during Jena 6

Youth increasingly use online presence for identity

Exposed to online community-building from very young age

What can I do?

Online collaboration for...● Project management● Delivering services in distributed environment● Collaboration around innovation (ideas,

research) or production (documents and digital products)

● Collaborative problem solving● Distance education and learning ● Coordinated action, campaigns● Provide customer support

Why Collaborate Online?

You have a distributed team Save hassle in arranging meetings Central meeting place without being in same physical place

You need a flexible team Easier to deal with team turnover Add more people without more cost

Your work and information exists in digital medium Communication is cheaper

Your product/service benefits from community (customer)relationships

Self-organizing system saves money in support, marketing, and product development

Your project is spreading ideas and building a community Becomes worth it to involve more people

When it's not appropriate...

Users have problems with connectivity

Members of the group lack the necessary technical skills and/or have no desire to learn them

Aggressive project schedules allow no time for learning curve of new processes

Language barriers are too great for productive communication

There is a deep rooted distrust or animosity within the group and no strong commitment to establishing trust

When the work is not conducive to electronic communication.

Weigh Costs and Benefits

Business case unique to each organizationCommon (possible) benefits

● Operating cost savings● Inter-departmental communication and learning● Greater access to knowledge of a team● Rapid prototyping and development

Common (possible) costs● Investment in technology design, development● Supporting the collaboration can be costly

Elements of Online Collaboration

Members

Each group of individuals comes to the online community with a

distinct role, vernacular, goals, or affiliation can be considered a

different kind of member.

Shared Purpose

What are the goals, meaning, values or affiliations that are common to all members? What are you trying to

accomplish with online collaboration?

Note: not all members may understand that they have a shared

purpose.

Structure and Organization

How will the members will be organized and interact with each

other? The structure and organization of your team will help define the way

technology tools are used.● What are the formal rules that members are governed

by? ● Will all members have contact with all others? ● Will all members be loosely associated?

Process

What will you actually do together?

● Distinct kinds of processes: strategic, tactical, administrative, and reflective.

● Consider if your timeframe for work is short and defined, ongoing, or long-term and undefined.

● Will people be participating regularly or will participation be erratic and punctuated?

Technology

What do people use now to: communicate, work, create new relationships?

What kinds of tools are required, suggested, or helpful for the members to use to collaborate?

Is there a budget for technology? If not, who will handle training, setup, and support?

Case Study: Dotrust.net

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT)

MembersWho uses the online collaboration area?

Local Partners

Intern Managers

Interns

Funders

dotrust.net

Shared Purpose

All members of the DOT community have a shared goal to make ICT technology accessible to marginalized and disadvantaged groups as a way of improving economic, educational, and employment opportunities.

dotrust.net

Structure

Highly structured community with closed membership and well defined teams.

Established hierarchy that defines roles and responsibilities

Inter-team networking and information sharing is encouraged

dotrust.net

Technology

Plone Content Management System (plone.org) with add-on products

− Designed to support and structure the activities and collaboration of the DOT community.

− Encourages learning across different teams within countries and around the world.

− New content (resources, blog posts and events) created primarily within the community folders that support local projects.

− New resources appear in side bars throughout the site

dotrust.net

Process

Project Management and Community of Practice

− All teams from management to intern field workers utilize the same processes for collaboration.

Performance reviews include an evaluation of online participation

Social Capital is built through personal profiles that allow for self-expression and connection between individuals.

dotrust.net

Case Study: Mifos.org Micro-finance Open Source Grameen Foundation Project

Members

Microfinance Institutions (MFI): These organizations may be using the Mifos software, seeking to use the software, or interested to learn about it.

Software Developers: desire to contribute to the software development to the project.

Specialists: consultants and experts in the field who help MFIs implement the software

mifos.org

Shared Purpose

The Mifos community seeks to: Build a world-class microfinance software

using open source technology Increase the impact of microfinance

institutions world-wide Empower very poor people around the world

to pull themselves out of poverty

mifos.org

Structure

Developers: − Open access− Rules for collaboration

Microfinance Institutions:− Easy to join the site− Community elements designed to support and

welcome MFIs

mifos.org

Structure

Specialists and Developers:− Barriers to entry into the network ensure bringing

the necessary skills and expertise to contribute. − Once part of the community, Specialists and

Developers gain access to resources and benefits that reward their participation and make them more visible in the community.

mifos.org

Technology

Plone Content Management System with add-on features, such as a wiki, forum, forms, and other tools (plone.org)

ifPeople product with integrated Google mapping in order to allow microfinance institutions and specialists to find each other.

Trac and SVN for code management A mailing list and an instant messaging chat

channel (#mifos on irc).

mifos.org

Process

Software development is governed by coding standards and processes for collaboration common to open source projects

Collaboration is restricted to specific tools in order to maintain processes for seeking assistance and requesting new features.

The process of incorporating of new members is core for this nacent community. Users of the software can easily join the community while developers and specialist must go through an approval process before they are allowed to join.

mifos.org

Application

Find worksheet in your handouts

Technology Approaches

Open community collaboration sites Free online collaboration tools Subscription-based tools Custom web applications

Refer to session materials for examples

Open Community Collaboration Sites

Allow individuals to find each other and share information.

Some sites have become powerful platforms for coordinating actions.

Generally proprietary and not customizable Free but you have to see ads Your information is managed on someone

else's servers

Free On-line Collaboration Tools

Yahoo and Google both provide free space and hosted tools for on-line collaboration.

Tools include calendars, blogs, photo and document storage.

Anyone can create a community and you can choose whether they are open to the public or kept private to a select community.

These tools can be good options for volunteer communities or teams just sampling the power of on-line collaboration.

Subscription Based Tools

May have a sliding cost scale based on the size or sector of your community.

Tend to be designed to meet the needs of a specific type of community.

Generally more customizable than Google or Yahoo

Custom Web Applications

This is any software that is designed to be run on a server.

Hosted web applications may be free, but there is a cost for set up and hosting.

Applications include content management systems and collaboration tools that are set up on the server of your choice.

These tools may be run on internal servers so that they are not accessible to those outside your local network, or on an external server.

Plone Content Management System

Lessons and Concerns

Building Trust in Virtual Teams

Competence of individual members: skills and capacity to perform their responsibilities within the team

Follow-through on commitments: Avoid miscommunication due to cultural or departmental differences in expectations by clearly communicating and documenting what is expected

− Responsibilities and roles

− Response times to communication

− Timelines for deliverable

Building Trust in Virtual Teams

Transparency Communication about progress: Teams benefit from

regular, synchronous communication where everyone is updated on the current work in progress.

Reflection: After each phase of work (especially early in the process), set aside time for reflection on the work process.

Allow time for open debate: Ensure that both sides of an issue are heard even if someone must play devils advocate. Ask for input from quiet parties (do not assume that silence equals agreement!).

Building Trust in Virtual Teams

Concern for the Well-Being of Others Concern for people's personal situation: Establishing

a culture where people greet each other and sincerely inquire about the others well-being will go a long way toward creating a culture of care.

Transition team members: Establish a formal procedure whereby new members are introduced to the group, the technology and the history of the team, as well as, as procedure for documenting the work of team members who are leaving the group.

Staying on Track: Accountability and Monitoring

Establish the goals of the project from the beginning.

Define Roles and Responsibilities Define “workflow”, hand-off and process Identify performance measures Establish a method and timeline for reviews

Supporting and Sustaining

How will you keep the momentum going?− Nourish and motivate the community− Provide support for technical questions− Maintain the rules for the online structure

Thank You!

Special thanks to Tirza for help on the presentationThanks to Pegasus for the amazing conferenceThank you for participating!

Christopher Johnsone: cjj@ifpeople.net www.ifpeople.net