Online Collaboration

ONLINE COLLABORATION ~ STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS

Anne Welsh

XX Elisad Meeting ~ Torino ~ 2008

ELISAD 2007 ~ BEYOND GOOGLE

ELISAD 2008 ~ WORKING TOGETHER

Photo credit: Pesky Library, http://flickr.com/photos/peskylibrary/2166053845/

WHO DO WE COLLABORATE WITH?

Other departments in our organisation Parent / child organisations Funders / commissioning bodies Partner organisations Members of our professional networks

Photo credit: yuan2003, http://www.flickr.com/photos/yuan2003/1796355617/

... AND INCREASINGLY ...

“The new Web challenges the assumption

that information must move from

credentialed producers to passive consumers ...

The democratization of the media publishing tools ... is rapidly transforming our notions of how expertise, relevance, and professionalism develop in the media

Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes

everything.Rev. & updated ed. Atlantic, 2008. p. 146.

PICTURE ONLINE COLLABORATION ...

Picture credit: Dion Hinchcliffe, http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=147

... OR

Prosumption = reduced controlDoug Savage, http://www.savagechickens.com/blog/2007/10/chaos-in-hell.html

ONLINE COLLABORATION TOOLS

Email (including lists and groups) Chat / Instant Messenger

e.g. http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol

e.g. http://www.skype.com Co-authoring / co-editing documents

e.g. http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

Wikis Blogs & “microblogs” Social networks

FAMILIAR TOOLS HAVE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES TOO ... Email

Email Groups (like Elisad Yahoo Group)

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/collaborativeworking/index.asp?id=8602

WHAT’S NEW ABOUT 2.0?

This is perhaps a little strong, but

...Picture credit: Ben Sheldon, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensheldon/212159782/

EASY TO DO IT YOURSELF

Image credit: Horn Book: http://www.hbook.com/resources/librarians/default.asp

PROMOTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

DEMOCRATIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE

SOCIAL INFORMATION?

Dion Hinchcliffe, http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/social_media_goes_mainstream.htm

OPPORTUNITIES FROM COLLABORATING VS. RISKS OF NOT COLLABORATING

A V[oluntary] C[ommunity] O[rganisation] becomes more innovative through the involvement of its network of users, volunteers and other supporters, and attracts increased funding

Vs. A VCO’s staff and volunteers are

frustrated by not being able to work in a collaborative way and leave the organisation

~ ICT Foresight. How online communities can make the net work for the VCS

http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/uploadedFiles/NCVO/Publications/Publications_Catalogue/Sector_Research/ICT%20Foresight%20-

%20social%20networks.pdf

OPPORTUNITIES FROM COLLABORATING

“Visitors may feel more inclined to trust an organisation that they see is itself part of a network and is pulling in (aggregating) information from other useful and interesting sources. Likewise, individuals will want to link from their online spaces to the organisations that they support and will want to pull content from the websites they are interested in, into their own sites.




RISKS OF NOT COLLABORATING

“However, organisations that don’t

integrate social elements into their websites may risk not being found online by interested people, or turning off those who find that they can’t engage with an organisation in the way they increasingly come to expect.




MEMBERSHIP MODELS

David Wilcox, http://socialmedia.wikispaces.com/Network+structures

TAKING PRECAUTIONS

Photo credit: Libraryman http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryman/698994792/

FLAMING, TROLLING ...

http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/11/dont-flame-me-bro.html

... EVEN HATING?

“Libraries need to define hate speech in the content guidelines that are part of their Library 2.0 applications and use these definitions to identify user-generated hate speech.

“Context and user intent play a large role in identifying hate speech, and automated systems, like word matching, may not effectively carry out the task.

~ Margaret Brown-Sica and Jeffrey Beall. Library 2.0 and the problem of hate speech.

Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Libraries, 9(2).

ALL THINGS IN MODERATION?

“ Humans are not always consistent …

Human moderation is also slow, a problem that affects the immedicay of the Library 2.0 participation experience. It may also cause many who did not see their comments added immediately to not want to post a comment again.

~ Margaret Brown-Sica and Jeffrey Beall. Library 2.0 and the problem of hate speech. Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Libraries, 9(2).

OPENNESS ALL THE WAY?

“If you really want to build comments, you have to be open and make commenting easy. Limiting your blog content or commenting features to members also limits what you can achieve with your blog. A members-only strategy may be appropriate in some cases, but not if your goal is to engage a vocal audience.

~ Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant. Why doesn’t anyone comment on your blog? Associations Now,

Sept. 2008.http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/

ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=36272

MODERATION IN PRACTICE

THE GREATEST THREAT OF ALL ...

Picture credit: Victor Castilla, http://web2097.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-is-important-to-learn-about-web-20.html

Change for the sake of change ...

... OR THE WAY OF THE DODO?

Picture credit: kevinzim, http://www.flickr.com/photos/86624586@N00/112835575/

[email protected]

ONLINE COLLABORATION ~ STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS

Education

Online Collaboration