More than just a meeting place, the Internet is a tool for online collaboration. This presentation goes beyond using the web as a networking tool and looks at how to leverage online tools to get people to work together effectively. Presentation by ifPeople cofounders Christopher Johnson and Tirza Hollenhorst at the Pegasus Communications "Systems Thinking in Action" conference in Seattle, WA in November 2007.

1. More Than a Meeting Place:
Leveraging Online Tools for Impact
Tirza Hollenhorst
Christopher Johnson
ifPeople – Innovation for People
www.ifpeople.net
Pegasus Conference | Seattle, WA | November 6, 2007

2. 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?

3. Footnote
Not delving in to the features of specific

technologies in this presentation

4. 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)

5. Flow of Presentation
Getting to Know the Landscape

Narrowing Our Focus:

How? Examples
Participative activity

Lessons and concerns


6. Getting to Know Us

7. Survey

8. 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


9. 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
−

10. 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

11. Business Models

12. Humanitarian efforts

13. Life...Online

14. Online Identity Today
FaceBook Youth increasingly

use online presence
 Originally a college-
for identity
age target...
Exposed to online

40+ million
−
community-building
registered users
from very young age
1% of all Internet
−
time on Facebook
Used to coordinate

action during Jena 6

15. 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
●

16. 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

17. 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.

18. Weigh Costs and Benefits
Business case unique to each organization

Common (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
●

19. Elements of Online Collaboration

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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?

23. 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?

24. 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?

25. Case Study: Dotrust.net
Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT)

26. Members dotrust.net
Who uses the online collaboration area?
Local Partners
Intern Managers
Interns
Funders

27. Shared Purpose
dotrust.net
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.

28. Structure dotrust.net
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

29. Technology dotrust.net
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

30. Process dotrust.net
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.

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

32. Members mifos.org
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

33. Shared Purpose mifos.org
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

34. Structure
mifos.org
Developers:

Open access
−
Rules for collaboration
−
Microfinance Institutions:

Easy to join the site
−
Community elements designed to support and
−
welcome MFIs

35. Structure mifos.org
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.

36. Technology mifos.org
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).

37. Process mifos.org
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.

38. Application
Find worksheet in your handouts


39. Technology Approaches
Open community collaboration sites

Free online collaboration tools

Subscription-based tools

Custom web applications

Refer to session materials for examples

40. 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

41. 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.

42. 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


43. 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.

44. Plone Content Management System

45. Lessons and Concerns

46. 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
−

47. 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!).

48. 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.

49. 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


50. 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
−

51. Thank You!
Special thanks to Tirza for help on the presentation

Thanks to Pegasus for the amazing conference
Thank you for participating!
Christopher Johnson
e: cjj@ifpeople.net
www.ifpeople.net