Sessions : The Collaboratory Experiment : Comments

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:41:30 GMT

David,

I love the idea! The registration page for the Unconference should be released later today.

-Ismael

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:27:51 GMT

Sounds great David - I look forward to taking part in the experiment!

Ben

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:39:43 GMT

I'm already enrolled for the paid Conference, which I believe affords me free entry to the Unconference (no separate registration required). Is there anything else I must do to register for participation in the Collaboratory Experiment?

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:42:35 GMT

No, your comment is enough.

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:36:22 GMT

I'm also interested in participating. Let me know if you need anything besides this comment.

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:14:42 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Ismael, I did see the page for the Unconference, thanks for putting that up. I still have not been able to contact Ross yet to find out what time the Collaboratory event will be (he was away on vacation last week). Also, are we limiting the attendance to the number of tables?

I am diligently working on the scenario for Collaboratory, and thought everyone might want a quick synopsis. A team of in-person and distance members of the intelligence community and specific experts is called together to solve the problem of unusual red tides (plankton blooms) off the west coast of Florida. The team will need to use a variety of collaborative tools to work together to figure out what is causing these unusaul red tides. Are these occurances natural in origin or man made? If man made, who is doing it and how? What should the team do about it? Is this really an eco-terrorist attack?

You as the team will be given roles and data, but you will have to work together to figure this ecological mystery out. I will be the team leader and will facilitate the scenario. The goal is not only to use a variety of different collaborative tools, but also to see how your team (I think there will be at least 2 teams in the room) both in-person and at-a-distance members work with each other (interpersonal interactions) as well as the technologies, and of course come up with a solution to the red tide problem!

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:23:09 GMT

Ray,

I added you to the list.

-Ismael

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:27:57 GMT

David, Ismael,

I'd like to participate in the experiment as well please.

Thanks

-Jason

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:55:37 GMT

Hi,

I'm very much interested in the experiment! I'm quite a "beginner" with Office 2.0, so I hesitate to add my name to the list. But I'll be in the experiment.

-Koji

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:00:31 GMT

Koji,

The way I envision this experiment, there will be people playing, and there will be people observing. You are welcome to observe and still be part of the experiment. I know of several others that will be observing.

-David

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

gcohen@veodia.com — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:04:25 GMT

I'd like to be part too please.

Guillaume

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:35:01 GMT

That sounds like a great experiment. Can you please add me to the list if it is not too late.

Thanks so much,

Josh

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:51:02 GMT

Josh,

No problem, we now have a room (Modernist) and can accomodate 4 teams of 8 people each (what we have set up for). Looks like we will be playing from 2-4 on Wednesday afternoon.

David

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:52:03 GMT

About 6 weeks ago I agreed to do the “Collaboratory Experiment” as part of the Unconference at the Office 2.0 conference on September 3rd. This has been an enormous amount of work, and my hat is off to all those programmer and creative people that design online games.

I have had to create a scenario, roles, data, figure out the logistics for the event (Modernist room at the St. Regis Hotel), and coordinate between 5 different collaborative tool vendors, try to get sponsors for the event (to pay for the room at the hotel), etc. This has taken an inordinate amount of time and is less than a week away.

The scenario is about a number of red tides occurring off the coast(s) of Florida and having the team try to determine if this is a natural event, and if so what is causing it? If it is not a natural event, and is man-made, is it just a mistake, or a byproduct of some process that has unknown consequences, or is it malicious and really a thinly disguised eco-terrorist attack on the U.S.?

The idea is that people learn better about collaborative tools and team work by participating, rather than having someone talk at them. In my consulting practice, in the past, I have done some scenario creation to teach different corporate teams about collaboration, including the tools and technologies, critical processes involved, and interpersonal dynamics. That was a bit different than this public experiment (Collaboratory) that I am doing at Office 2.0, and I am doing it in an environment that I have much less control over.

I am assuming everyone attending will be bringing a laptop that connects to the WiFi network at Office 2.0. The Office 2.0 Conference is giving every paid attendee an HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, which I am told has Mozilla Firefox installed and will run Flash (needed for at least 3 of the collaborative applications that will be used in the scenario). This is a great deal for attendees, since I saw the same notebook selling for about $600 online (and it is included in the price of admission).

The real challenge has been to create 8 roles per team, and one facilitator role (me). Since the round tables in the room will each seat 6 people, that will be the “in-person” team, and I will have 2 other team members in the room (at other chairs, not at a table) simulating team members interacting at a distance. I have had to create 8 roles, all with different (but consistent) data, as well as giving role instructions to each player so they know how to play the role and have specific information that only they know (and may or may not choose to share… just like in real life). Each player’s role has a different agenda, and I have added in a pinch on controversy and scandal to make it interesting.

This scenario I have created is close enough to what a crisis team in an enterprise would do to deal with a situation, but probably far enough away from the role most people play in their organization to allow them to suspend their disbelief and get into playing the role and having fun with their team working through the scenario.

The workflow for the scenario has been the most challenging. I keep wanting to have everything set up and at least some tasks, discussions and documents already populated in the various collaborative tools we are using. Then trying to link them all together and make sure that we don’t have to log in 5 different times (for each different tool) has also been a coordination nightmare.

However, at this point, I am just doing the best I can, and even though I am the instigator and facilitator for this event, I need to let go of just how things will work and trust that the people playing the scenario are smart, and will figure stuff out, and that this too is like real life (not everything is set up in advance and wrapped up in a nice neat package). One thing I do know, is that I and everyone participating in any way in this event will learn a great deal!

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:58:57 GMT

Thanks David! I'm looking forward to it.

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:28:20 GMT

Hi David,

It looks like your scenario could benefit greatly from a lightweight on-demand project management software. If so, drop me a note to (andrew at team dot wrike dot com), we could set the environment for the teams.

Andrew Filev

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:49:11 GMT

Andrew,

I am aware of Wrike. However we are using TeamWorkLive for the Collaboratory Experiment as I was able to get in touch with them a few weeks ago and have been working with them since then. We can look at using Wrike for another event we are planning for Q2, 2009. Hopefully you will be at the Collaboratory Experiment and we can talk more after the experiment over cocktails.

David

RE: The Collaboratory Experiment

ismael@monolab.com — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:58:44 GMT

Sure. I could later do a demo for you to show some great and unique features in action (interactive timeline, email integration, flexibility in views/sharing).

See you tomorrow.