cni spring task force meeting 20091 cultivating collaboration: lessons learned from the dlf aquifer...

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Cultivating Collaboration: Lessons Learned from the DLF Aquifer

InitiativeKatherine Kott

Erstwhile Aquifer DirectorCNI Spring Task Force Meeting

April 7, 2009

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Why this talk?

• Transitions—time to capture learning from Aquifer

• Increased importance of collaboration

• Collaboration might want to be free…

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Aquifer background

• Successor project to Digital Library Federation distributed open digital library (DODL)

• Subset of DLF members participated from 2005-2009

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Why DODL dawdled

• Overly ambitious scope/resources

• Loose definition/structure not conducive to accomplishing goals

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Aquifer accomplishments

• Research and best practices– Metadata guidelines

– Tools inventory

– Metadata crosswalks

– Digital library assessment

– Interoperability

• American Social History Online (funded project)– Open sources code

– Web site and services for scholars

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What made the difference?

• Creating a framework• Gathering resources

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Framework for collaboration

• Collaborative entrepreneurship—Raymond Miles– Applies to innovation incubation– Suggests explicit attention to structure/process

is important for success

• Resources for collaboration– Focused attention– Consistent attention over time

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Collaboration or cooperation

• "...we suggest that collaboration differs from... cooperation in two main ways. First, cooperation is motivated by the benefits each party expects to receive from sharing ideas, information or resources. Therefore, while cooperative behavior may be enjoyable in its own right, it is primarily extrinsically motivated. Second, because cooperative behavior ultimately involves the pursuit of self-interest, it requires periodic or even continual assessment by each participant of the amount of trust and commitment of the other party…”

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Collaboration• In collaborative relationships,

on the other hand, each party is as committed to the other's interests as it is to its own, and this commitment reduces the need for the continual assessment of trust and its implications for how rewards will be divided." Miles, Raymond, et al.. (2005). Collaborative Entrepreneurship. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. p.40.

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Participation and governance

• At a high level, representation• Where the work gets done, skills-based

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Organizing volunteers

• Match “organizational” needs with volunteer interests

• It is OK to set expectations

• Select motivated leaders

• Set clear decision processes

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Pooling resources

• “We recruited staff we knew, with the skills we needed but the project wasn’t going anywhere. It occurred to us that we needed to check in with the library directors.”

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Awareness of what is going on in participant organizations

• Changes in leadership

• Changes in staff• Funding cycles• Shifting priorities

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Staying in touch with participants

• If you think busy people are reading your email…

• Phone calls when obvious changes occur

• Focus group enabled us to hear participants talk among themselves about priorities

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Tools don’t make the team—but they help

• Face to face meetings• Conference calls• Wikis/blogs/PM/Bug

tracking software– Base camp

– Confluence

– SourceForge

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More details about lessons learned

• DLF Spring Forum in Raleigh, NC

• Focus on assessment• Technical

development status

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Where is Aquifer now?

• Products developed through American Social History Online being maintained by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign– Web site– Collections registry

• Standards and best practices– MODS metadata guidelines migration to LoC– Other documentation???

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When the project ends

• Individual organizations pick up viable products• Celebrate!!!

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What would we do differently?

• Develop awareness of funding cycles

• Plan for the end at the beginning

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Fostering collaboration

• Open source movement

• Fedora and DSpace• Educopia Institute• Open Knowledge

Commons• LOCKSS• Hathi Trust

• DLF/CLIR• Ad hoc groups• Ithaka• OER Commons• Funders?• OCLC/RLG

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From innovation to development to production service

• Share information about processes that work as well as accomplishments with the community

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Thank you for your interest

• Questions or comments?

• For more information--kkott@stanford.edu