collaboration for sustainability in a networked world: barriers and advice

Collaboration for Sustainability in a Networked World

Based on findings of thesis research for an MSc in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability

Blekinge Institute of Technology 2009 by Fei Rong, Alice-Marie Archer and Rebecca Petzel

Background: Collaboration and the web

Short Film introduction

Background: Collaboration and the web

How can we apply this power to leverage our work towards a

sustainable future?

Sustainability Challenge: The GAP

We are faced with the following challenge - to get to a state whereby we:

“meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

(United Nations General Assembly, 1987)

"sustainable development simply calls for more collaboration since the changes

needed exceed the capacity of individual actors."

(DeBruijn and Tukker 2002, 11)

Background: Mass Collaboration

We think, collective intelligence, group genius, swarm creativity... Things these all have in common:

1. Diversity of opinion with a mix of knowledge and experience 2. Independence 3. Decentralization 4. Aggregation: mechanism for drawing out the collective decision (Surowiecki 2005)

How can we harness these for sustainability?

Collaborative Innovation Networks - COINs

“COIN: a cyber-team of self-motivated people with a

collective vision, enabled by the web to collaborate in achieving a common goal by sharing ideas,

information, and work.”

Using Wikipedia to further Explain COINs

Main Editors: Collaborative Innovation Network (COIN)

Casual Editors: Collaborative Learning Network (CLN)

Wikipedia Consumers: Collaborative Interest Network (CIN)

A Wikipedia page is a COIN with a CLN and CIN, and Wikipedia itself is a

great example of many COINs working together as an Ecosystem:

one body, many organs.

Examples of COINs

Methodology: Research Design

Methodology at a glance

●Surveys (18 People)●Interviews (38 People) ●Participant Observation ●Feedback

Results

Results: Vision – COINs in a Sustainable Society

The World is Flat ● Self-organized, diverse, interconnected, empowered.

Businesses and governments operate as COINs:platforms connecting people around shared-visions.

The New Networked Knowledge Economy ● Exchange of knowledge, the only limitless,

abundant resourcePhysical Implications of Technology ● Low-impact technology, humanized with presenceRe-tribalized Man ● Exchanging stories of meaning, finding our global tribe

Results: Sustainability implications of COINs today

Benefits of COINS for sustainability● Distributed working● Reduced resource consumption● Self-organization, Diversity, Interdependence● Bridging the ingenuity gap● Socially sustainable organizational structure

Concerns of COIN working● Lack of systems perspective can lead to increase in

unsustainable practices● Amplification of success of COINs with a

fundamentally unsustainable vision

Electronic Waste on Docks waiting to be shipped, Photo by Dave Henniker

Results: Emerging Factors

Open Source, Open EverythingThe value-added of social computing. Following success in software development industry, questions are arising regarding the transfer of this model to other sectors.Intellectual Property (IP)How will IP survive the Internet Revolution? Rise of Creative Commons copyright system as a response to IP challengesThe Networked Knowledge EconomyNew communication technologies and networks allow for commons based peer production: new economic order.Web-Enabled TribalismPeople are using the web to find like minded individuals, forming online tribes whichsometimes seep out into the real world as these individuals seek each other out.Emerging TechnologyHumanizing technology, cloud computing, SaaS

Barriers to successful web-collaboration

● The Digital Divide

● Intellectual Property Concerns

● Technological Barriers

● External Cultural Barriers

● Internal Barriers

DEMOTIVATING CONTRIBUTION

76.5% of people do not have internet access. Do your desired contributors?

76.5% of people do not have internet access

We arn't all part of the Net-Generation

Are your contributors digital immigrants or natives?

Sometimes technology is frustrating

What is the technical sophistication of your

contributors?

Advice: its all about K.I.S.S

KEEP

IT

SIMPLE

STUPID

Advice: Lower the bar to entry

●It only needs to be good enough

●Most collaborations can take

Place over email skype and

via a simple web platform

What will you do with my intellectual property?

An adequate legalframework is yet to emerge as capableof dealing with IP over the web.

Not everyone thinks of Intellectual property the same way. There are

big differences across cultures.

Advice: Be Clear

● Ensure from the beginning that contributors know what will

become of their contributions – clarify the return on their

investment.

● Shared risk = Shared reward

● Be aware of IP cultural differences in your COIN

● Consider emergent flexible copyright options such as Creative

Commons

There is a Status Quo

bias that new

technology has more

bugs.

The web can be distracting!

Advice: Take control of your web

● Separate work and non-work email

● Take time away from your computer

● Be present – when collaborating over the web in real time, don't

browse the web. When face to face, close your computers and

TALK to each other

● Be aware of your assumptions, take a neutral, open attitude

Don't be a hero-

its not covered by our health plan.

The movement from hierarchy to chaordism /

wirearchy often faces resistance

from the 'top'.

Advice: Get support from the top...

● And show support from the top...

COINs internal to an organisation that do not

feel supported, often 'break away' taking their

concept with them

People say things online they wouldn't say face to face.

Without the presence of face to face

communication, collaborations can fail due

to dysfunctional argumentation

People say things online they wouldn't say face to

face.

Web Web Collaborations Collaborations can suffer from can suffer from Poor Signal to Poor Signal to Noise Ratio Noise Ratio

Over controlling

leadership can stifle a

collaboration

Collaborations often fail due to lack of:Shared vision Trust and Transparent Communication: the pillars of good collaboration

Advice: Be an active participant

● Allow space for self organisation – take the role of facilitator and

active participant rather than leader.

● Operate in trust with transparent communication

● Ensure all communication can be accessed if so desire

● Choose systems that have a good signal to noise ratio – to

ensure a low barrier to entry for their use.

● BE NICE – don't underestimate the power of altruism

“The biggest challenge to harnessing the collective intelligence of the world to help solve

some of the very serious problems we have around sustainability….has to do with people knowing not only how to use the software, but

ideas around critical thinking and collaboration.” – Howard Rheingold

When to collaborate. Know when to collaborate, or not (logic of going down this route).

Perfect Invitation. How to engage the right crowd to participate in a collaboration (vision, rewards / motivations, value-exchange)

Collaborator experience design. Design a compelling experience for the participants of the collaboration (web tools, culture, governance, legals)

Lead by example. Be a great collaborator yourself (spontaneity, listening, story-telling, letting go).

Strategic considerations for COINs. How to ensure our COINs are moving us towards sustainability.

How 2 Guide

Discussion

COINs support disruptive innovation towards sustainability

COINs support strategic guidelines towards social sustainability

Discussion: How are COINs strategic Towards Sustainability?

Discussion: COINs need a strategic guiding vision

For COINs to be strategic towards sustainability they need to be underpinned by a systems view of sustainability

●Ensuring basic understanding of sustainability ●Supporting the design of shared-vision ●Enabling the design of a strategy for progressing towards the shared vision of success●Ensuring outcomes of a COIN do not violate our sustainability●Ensuring COIN outputs offer a flexible platform

We believe the FSSD to be an appropriate framework for supporting the sustainable use of COINs

Application: A brief lesson on how to build a COIN

●Compelling proposition

●Strong Vision

●Guidelines for clear, transparent communication

●Pick the minimum technology necessary

●Keep it simple

●Establish upfront what everyone has to loose and gain

●Shared risk, shared reward

Recommendations: Further research

●A study of the resource implications of distributed working in COINs

●Developing taxonomies for interdisciplinary COINs

●Investigate legal constructs for web enabled collaborative innovation networks

●Establishing Gatekeepers: communicating for multi-cultural COINs

●Developing a training scheme for teams desiring to form a COIN

●Developing an education programme for web enabled collaborative innovation and critical thinking for school children

“the danger is not that we ask too much of the Internet, but too little…it could be a new

platform for how we could organize ourselves, to find knowledge together, to

work out what is true and to decide together what we should do about it”

–Tim Berners-Lee

“the danger is not that we ask too much of the Internet, but too little…it could be a new

platform for how we could organize ourselves, to find knowledge together, to

work out what is true and to decide together what we should do about it”

–Tim Berners-Lee

alicemarie.archer@gmail.com

Ninja Thanks:

● Our fab advisors: Merlina and Tamara● Menka●Our Interviewees and survey respondents, too numerous to list here● The Collaboration Ninjas: Henno, PG, Joe, DeepMonk, Joel, Denele, Tim, Dean, Jaco, Tim● Paulie-nka (deviantart) for the puzzle-piece slide backgrounds●www.wordle.net for our funky tag cloudREFS

●http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2053/2229752965_ae28533a0a_o.jpg●http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/schunn/sword/plagiarism.jpg●http://nirel.deviantart.com/art/Scream-17026336●http://www.jarche.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/wirearchy.jpg●http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/images/human.gif●http://digitalminds.deviantart.com/art/Pain-in-the-ass-101307904●http://altair4444.deviantart.com/art/Puppet-Not-15196569●http://marthema.deviantart.com/art/Together-35327305