Online collaboration in action

Submitted by Pamela on 29 March 2011 - 12:21am

For me, the Internet is about collaboration. The past weekend has made me think about the similarities and differences regarding some of the collaborations I am currently involved with. I'm also thinking about how best to enable collaboration between those collaborations.

Three collaborative groups

The three collaborations I was connecting with over the weekend were, in order of the time they have been around: Kabissa, Coalition of the Willing, and Collaborators Connect.

I came to Kabissa when it already had an impressive reputation and track record and I was very new to Internet enabled collaboration. I came to Coalition of the Willing after the film of that name had been made, and before the first Movement camp, I came to Collaborators Connect as an idea forming in my mind, which I then shared with a few people (including Tobais Eigen of Kabissa) and which I finally brought into being as a place where people who were connected with the late Maria Agnese Giraudo could connect with each other and collaborate more widely.

Overlap

I see overlapping interests, and where I see overlapping interests I see opportunities for collaboration, learning from each other, and the possibility of doing things better by doing together. So, looking at these groups (and some of the people in them) where is the overlap? What benefit can people get from knowing each other better?

Starting points

An easy starting point may be if I simply consider how I overlap with the people in the groups, and then see if the overlaps overlap each other. That way I'm working from knowledge and experience, not guesswork. It may well be that there is more overlap than I know about, but that can emerge later. At this point, all I'm looking to be is a (possible) catalyst – bringing together the ingredients for a possible collaboration.

To take the chemical reaction analogy further, there are some reactions that happen on their own, simply by combining the elements, but there are other combinations of elements that need energy to be added if there is to be any reaction. I'm not committing myself to provide the energy at this point. I'm only bringing the elements together.

So what are the starting points - the overlap between Kabissa and Coalition of the Willing (COTW), Kabissa and Collaborators Connect, and COTW and Collaborators Connect?

Kabissa and COTW.

The main thing that strikes me at present on Kabissa and Coalition of the Willing is that they are both working hard on setting up the systems that they need. They also both have active groups working on a variety of tasks, and coming together on Skype, on a Sunday, to pull things together.

At present Kabissa is working on operating procedures, and the documentation for operating procedures as well (not just technical stuff but other practical procedures to do with working with people too). The COTW team has also been developing procedures, it has been experimenting with a variety of online tools and setting up various structures.

I'm cautious of elaborating on exactly what the Kabissa and COTW teams have been up to as much of it is “techie stuff” which I'm glad to leave to other people. However it seems to me that there are similarities in the objectives of the two groups regarding setting up systems that will help the people they serve to work together more effectively. They seem to have powerful techie teams and I wonder if they would benefit from each being aware of the other.

Kabissa and collaborators connect

There is natural overlap between Tobias Eigen of Kabissa and other people in Collaborators Connect, because Tobias was one of the first people to encourage me to set up the group. Regarding Kabissa and most of the founder members of collaborators connect there are likely to be many shared interests. Most of the founder members are in Africa, or have some connection with Africa. Kabissa was set up specifically to serve the needs of people and groups in Africa.

COTW and collaborators connect

I see two current areas of overlap between these two groups. One is very straightforward and easy to see as it relates to information and practical projects. The other is less easy to see as it relates to processes and “socio tech” aspects of what the two groups are doing. I will focus on the obvious information overlap to begin with. As for the socio tech aspects, I will hold back on those for a while. The time when I introduce them will depend on how things go with the information sharing, and who gets involved between the two groups.

For another day

This post has touched briefly on overlapping interests between groups and how these might point to possible areas of collaboration. It hasn't begun to look at the practicalities of bringing different groups together, and other practical issues. On Friday I met with a group called TOCI - the open computing initiative - founded bt Ben Knowles. I introduced three TOCI members to the ideas of COTW and am bringing them into active collaboration with the COTW techie team. There have been some interesting steps in that process so far, and more to come. I would like to tell that story. Something else I have not yet touched on is the collaboration within the groups. They are all online groups with interesting similarities and differences, but reflecting on those will also have to wait for another day.