This presentation discuss a model for understanding collaboration tools and the role they play within an organization.

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The Collaboration Model
MODEL

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Properties of Collaboration
• Audience
• What is the direction
of the communication?
• Artifacts Audience
• What are we leaving
to those who are
absent?
• Time Frame Time Artifacts
• How long do we need
to keep the Artifacts of
the Collaboration?

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Audience – What is the direction of the
communication?
One to One (1:1) One to Many (1:*) Many to Many (*:*) Many to One (*:1)
(The Conversation) (The Announcement) (The Brainstorm) (The Feedback Loop)
• Personal Notes • Wedding • Chain Letters • Classic Feedback
• Instant Message Announcement • Wiki‟s Loop
• Blogs • Message boards • Political
• Websites • Unmoderated Campaigns
• Published Books Chat Rooms

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Artifacts – What are we leaving to those who are
absent?
Written • Transcript of a
Speech
Verbal • MP3 of a
Speech
Visual • Video / Photos
of a Speech

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Time – How long do we need to keep the Artifacts of
the Collaboration?
• Given and received in real time
Real time • Leaves very little in terms of Artifacts
• Artifacts left by the communicator
Queued • Artifacts generally consumed by the recipient
• Leaves long term artifacts
Long Term • Artifacts have a “draft” or “work in progress” quality
• Long term permanent artifacts
Static • Artifacts have a final or completeness quality

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Audience vs. Time with
Artifacts
1:1 1:* *:* *:1
Real time aaaaaaaaaaaa
Queued
Long Term
Static

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Audience vs. Time with
Written Artifacts
Written 1:1 1:* *:* *:1
Text Messaging /
Moderated Chat
Real time Instant
Room
“Google Wave” Chat Room
Messaging
Profiles / Message Boards /
Queued Email
Blog Groups
Feedback Forms
Long Term My Documents Website Wiki‟s Usage Logs
Text archival of Behavioral
Static Surface Mail Printout
the above Reports

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Audience vs. Time with
Verbal Artifacts
Verbal 1:1 1:* *:* *:1
Audience
Real time Conversation Speech Brainstorming
Reaction
Conference Phone In
Queued Phone Podcast
Call Campaign
Audio File /
Long Term Audio Book
“MP3”
CD / Tape / CD / Tape / CD / Tape /
Static
LP LP LP

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Audience vs. Time with
Visual Artifacts
Visual 1:1 1:* *:* *:1
Video
Real time “WebEx”
Conference
Video Video
Queued YouTube Interviews
Phone Podcast
Video Longitudinal
Long Term
Hosting Study
Film / Video
Static DVD
of Above

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You Can Rotate These Grids
Visual Verbal Written
Instant
Real time “WebEx” Telephone
Messaging
Video
Queued Voice Mail Email
Podcast
Long Term You Tube MP3 Document
Static DVDs CD/LP/Tape Book

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What is Collaboration
COLLABORATION

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What is Collaboration?
• All business processes contain unautomated workflows
• Humans are the exception handlers at these break points
• Collaboration is the act of handling these exceptions
• Collaboration consists of:
1. Synthesizing personal aesthetics, logic, and experience around a media
2. Communicating to an specific audience
3. Within a specific timeframe
• The timeframe when information is still in a medium prior to audience
consumption is the Mediation Gap
• The Mediation Gap is the weakest link in the collaboration process
• IT‟s job is to provide tools and technologies that enable processes to narrow
the mediation gap; creating memorable, permanent, findable artifacts
• Collaboration tools focus specifically on this Mediation Gap

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Collaboration in Action
Example A Example B
Almost all Business
„Boss‟ says: “I want a new “We are going to offer a new
Processes start as a verbal
website!” energy savings plan.”
request
Move towards work
Build the website, design the
assignments along multiple Design the survey
graphics
vectors
Eventually the intended
Email to affected employees, Mass mailing from SCE to
recipient receives the
new link on home page customers
communication
In the end artifacts with long SDLC documents and the
Statics on adoption of plan
term persistence are left actual website
Version “2.0” begins as “I can‟t find the…”, “We saved the company $X
feedback on areas for “Its too hard to use the…”, by spending $Y. We can
improvement are received “Its not compatible with…” increase that by Z%.”

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Collaboration Breaks Down
• Collaboration breaks down when
– Tools are not adequate – X is needed and the tool does Y
– Training on tools is not adequate – Tools are too new
– Tools do not talk to each other – Too many exception to handle
• When collaboration breaks down, Artifacts are not:
– Created
– Stored
– Searchable
– Auditable
• Therefore users respond by reverting to using what they know
“works”
– People Process – I will meet with them
– Paper Process –I‟ll just print it out
– Silos – I will only work with the people I trust
– Complaining – This sucks!

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1
Where is the Portal
*
• Portals aggregate Verbal
artifacts from points Written Visual
of collaboration and
present them to their SAP
appropriate audience
1
*
Written Collab. OS Written
Verbal Verbal
Visual Visual
1 1
* *

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Focus on Artifact / Data Synchronization
Verbal
Written Visual
SAP
Written Collab. OS Written
Data
Verbal Verbal
Visual Visual

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The 90 – 10 – 1 Rule in Social Media Adoption
• Of those people who
use your Social Media
Tool:
– 1% will create
– 10% will comment
– 90% will consume

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Total Population
Target with Percent Roll Out
Content Creator Pamper 1% Phase 1
Content Commenter Empowerment 10% Phase 2
Content Consumer Training 90% Phase 3
People who reject your
Promotions / PR ? Phase 4
tool
People who don’t know
Advertising ? Phase 4
about your tool

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What is Collaboration?
Process A.1 Collaboration Process A.2
• All business processes contain unautomated workflows
• Humans are the exception handlers at these break points
• Collaboration is the act of handling these exceptions

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personal
aesthetics
media
Experience logic

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What is Collaboration?
• All business processes contain unautomated workflows
• Humans are the exception handlers at these break points
• Collaboration is the act of handling these exceptions
• Collaboration consists of:
1. Synthesizing personal aesthetics, logic, and experience around a
media
2. Communicating to an specific audience
3. Within a specific timeframe
• The timeframe when information is still in a medium prior to audience
consumption is the Mediation Gap
• The Mediation Gap is the weakest link in the collaboration process
• IT‟s job is to provide tools and technologies that enable processes to
narrow the mediation gap; creating memorable, permanent, findable
artifacts
• Collaboration tools focus specifically on this Mediation Gap

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