The Collaboratory Experiment
Created on: Aug 8, 2008 7:18 PM by David Coleman - Last Modified: Sep 2, 2008 1:33 PM by Ismael Chang Ghalimi
Wednesday, September 3, 10:00AM to 12:00PM and 2:00PM to 4:00PM
Location: Impressionist (4th Floor)
Facilitator: David Coleman
Location: The Collaboratory Experiment is hosted by the Unconference
Sponsor: Sponsored by Mindjet
Content: This experiment was born from my frustration in looking at collaborative tools at a booth in a trade show, and also learning about the tools through a demo, which removes all the social aspects. The idea of Collaboratory is to provide an environment in which you (and your team) can evaluate collaborative tools within a specific context and with the social interaction. I talked about my frustration and what I had come up with as a solution (Collaboratory) with Ismael, and he offered me some time at the Office 2.0 Conference.
The idea of Collaboratory is to create a scenario with roles and data. To create teams of people that will play through a (facilitated) scenario to better understand not only the collaborative tools they are using, but to see how the tools support the social dynamics of the team.
Because many collaborative tools are SaaS-based today, it is possible to just have each team at a table, where each person gets assigned a role and then looks at the data for that role (much like any other online multi-player game like Dungeons & Dragons or World of Warcraft). In this experiment we will have tables of 8 people, who will be joined by 2 virtual players (off site) to create a team of 10 people. Each person will have a laptop (with power strips supplied) and a high speed Wi-Fi connection (provided by Swisscom). Those taking part in this experiment will have to register to the Office 2.0 Unconference, who will pass their e-mail addresses on to Collaborative Strategies (we are creating the scenario and facilitating the experiment) so that we can get you (free) subscriptions to the tools that will be involved in the scenario. That way, you will not have to go through the process of logging in to each tool as we use them in different parts of the scenario.
The scenario is one around crisis management for an ecological event. Each team’s goal is to not only figure out how to deal with the disaster, but to determine (based on the data) if the event is natural or man-made, and if man-made what to do about it! The scenario is designed to be similar to business processes, but different enough so that participants can get into their roles and feel part of the team and the outcome. In past simulations, participants were able to migrate what they learned in the scenario over to the critical processes in their businesses.
The event is scripted to take about 2 hours to play through the scenario and give everyone a chance to use all of the different tools for their role and tasks. Each of the vendors that has a tool selected for the scenario will provide free subscriptions to all Collaboratory members for the duration of the event, and will also provide an "Angel" in person at the event to help with any technology snags that may arise.
Because this is a first time event, with a complex mix of technologies, Murphy’s law applies! However, we will try to have as many resources as possible at the event to help out and make playing through the scenario as painless as possible. This experiment is a precursor to a possibly planned larger event (Spring 2009), so any feedback the participants can give us will be very helpful.
Andy Groh
says:
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?
Ray Thomas
says
in response to Ismael Chang Ghalimi:
I'm also interested in participating. Let me know if you need anything besides this comment.
David Coleman
says
in response to Ismael Chang Ghalimi:
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!
Jason Harrop
says
in response to David Coleman:
David, Ismael,
I'd like to participate in the experiment as well please.
Thanks
-Jason
Koji Morikawa
says:
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
David Coleman
says:
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
Josh Sookman
says:
That sounds like a great experiment. Can you please add me to the list if it is not too late.
Thanks so much,
Josh
David Coleman
says
in response to Josh Sookman:
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
David Coleman
says
in response to David Coleman:
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!
Andrew Filev
says:
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
David Coleman
says
in response to Andrew Filev:
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
Andrew Filev
says:
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.
David,
I love the idea! The registration page for the Unconference should be released later today.
-Ismael