The What, Why and How of Collaboration

ToolsChristina K. Pikas

Maryland Technology DayOctober 4, 2007

Agenda

BackgroundReal goals, do you have them?Choosing among...Re-purpose existing software or buy new?Gaining participationEvaluating

First - Who's Here?

Special libraries? Government? Law firm? Corporate? Others?

Academic? Public? MLS or MIM students? Independent Information Professionals? Vendors? Non-library folks?

Background

Lots of information on blogs, wikis, etc. May not be from your setting Less information on how they interact

Complex information ecology Information sharing climate Existing infrastructure Types of information

Access to funding, servers, IT staffLegal and security concerns

The bottom line:We are never starting from

a blank slate!

Real Goals

It is ok to have the goal of demonstrating a technology or learning a technology to build

expertise in the library!

(…then what?)

Potential Goals

Expand the role of the library as a catalyst for information sharing and stewardship

Establish and maintain relationships and networks with customers

Market library services and programsLibrary as online space Internal library tool to support staff work

Choosing among...

BlogsWikisOnline bookmarkingE-mail discussion listsForums/message boardsSharePointNewsletters

Or picking from?

How do blogs really work?

In practice:Each contribution is individual and signedPosting is normally kept in a time line arrangement what information is best arranged this way? what information is better arranged by subject

or geographically or... ?

Blogs are reverse chronologically arranged collections of discrete posts...

Blogs +/-

They do well at capturing comments for each post

They are easy to keep up with using RSS*

Easy to link to specific posts

Collaborative at the macro level

Sometimes difficult to chase conversations

Need to post fairly regularly to maintain non-RSS readership

Personal vs. corporate voice

*note: many people use RSS readers that are web based - these won't be very useful for intranet feeds!

How do wikis really work?

It’s the read/write web, where users can edit without knowing HTML

Typically Keep revisions so that you can see what has

changed and revert to a previous version Have levels of access User contributions are generally merged into

the whole without specific attribution

Wikis are web pages that visitors can edit*...

*note: a meaningless definition, but you'll know one when you see it!

Wikis +/-

Great for consensus documents

Great for things that can change fast

Great for things that have an end goal

Not great for things that require voting or individual opinions

Not great for settling arguments

Other 2.0 technologies

What older technologies?

Forums and bulletin boards Really good for threaded conversations

E-mail lists Reach the most people Are familiar and are the workhorse

Newsletters Are great for less frequent, well thought-out

content

Newsletters

But… no money, no time, no IT?Maybe there’s something that has a new

blog or wiki plugin? SharePoint new versions Confluence wikis also do blogs

Is there a possibility of using a hosted service? Wordpress.com Pbwiki Google groups?

SharePointMany different versionsMany organizations have access to a

lightweight version that came with Microsoft web server software

Newest version has E-mail and RSS alerts Blogs and wikis Discussion boards

Jack of all trades and integrates with Office

Open Source

FreeServer and setup can be expensiveBut there are lots of choices and many books to help

Adoption

If you build it, will they come? (short answer: no!) Assimilation gap: many IT products are

purchased, then never deployed, or if deployed, are not widely adopted

Fashions for corporate software come and go If 1-10-90 applies on the web, what if your total

population is only 100-10,000? What does adoption look like for a library

supported collaboration tool?

Gaining Participation

Talk to the potential users before building Invite these users first and take their

suggestionsModel the content you would like to see Provide a scaffold or template Give examples

Nurture the content that does appear Encourage healthy Discourage unhealthy

Make it easy and low risk

Participation (continued)

Encourage the participantsMake it part of their work processMarket tirelessly (do try not to be too

annoying!) in other media - by e-mail, by posters, by

flyers, by handoutsAppear in search resultsDrop in to casual conversation :)

Legal and Security

For intranetsGood to have a disclaimer that information

still must go through standard public release procedures

Standard compliance rules applyCaretaking to ensure growth can also

head off potential problemsUse real names, link to identity

Legal (continued)

For internet toolsConsider requiring a password to editUse spam filters and comment moderation

to start or be ready to add fastMonitor for spam

Other notes

Be sure to brand the thing with your logoBe sure to link to the library web siteConnect your work to the libraryBe committed!

Contact Information

Christina K. Pikas, BS, MLS R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center

The Johns Hopkins UniversityApplied Physics Laboratory

Voice  443.778.4812 (Baltimore) 240.228.4812 (Washington)

E-mail Christina.Pikas@jhuapl.edu

Blog http://christinaslibraryrant.blogspot.com

ResourcesCrawford, W. (2007). Balanced libraries: thoughts on

continuity and change. [Morrisville, NC]: Lulu.

Nielsen, Jakob (2006, October 9). Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute. Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox. Retrieved October 2, 2007 from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

Preece, J. (2000). Online communities: Designing usability, supporting sociability. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Wikipatterns. com (wonderful resource for wiki gardening!)

Sites Shown RecentArticles (APL internal only) The Gaming Zone:

http://thegamingzone.wordpress.com/ Business Blog:

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/businessblog/ Gibson wiki page (APL internal only) The Biz Wiki:

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page

APL Scuttle (APL internal only) Lav Notes: online at

http://www.library.jhu.edu/about/news/lavnotes/index.html

SharePoint Services: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/default.aspx