Dr. Tim Rayner gave a presentation about the Coalition of the Willing project. The project uses open work groups and collaborative production. It has three workstreams - outreach, metadata, and technology. The goal is to create online commons using common tools, spaces, and an ethos of open stewardship. The project coordinates using an email list, community portal, and social media platforms.
Improve Collaborative Projects with Visible Metadata
1. Name: Dr Tim Rayner Project Coalition of the Willing ALIA Sydney: 20x20 Working Together Tuesday 3rd of May 2011 Fisher Library, University ofSydney
9. ProM concept PROJECT META-DATA PERSONAL META-DATA Mission Goals Leader Team Milestones Age Sex Height Interests Hobbies Note that Visible Personal Meta-Data is a recent phenomena. Why not Visible Project Meta-Data?
10. ProM workflow ProM has three workstreams each with a particular mandate and set of interaction spaces enabled by certain tools Outreach MetaData Technology
I’d like to discuss my experience with open work groups, based on my work with CotW over the past 8 monthsI’ll focus on a software development project we started called ProM. It fell apart early and we are currently reviewing our mistakes – an instructive case
Political philosophy and social movementsI was applying social theory to transnational movements prior to the rise of social media (2000-2004)
Idea: an open source approach to the war on global warmingTheme of creative swarms mirrored in the film production: 20 teams totalling 77 people
New contacts: let’s do it!No funding or institutional support, just enthusiasm and willingness to experiment
10/10/10: 350, Appropedia, Metacurrency, and othersCobbled together Drupal platform with IRC and JustinTV
Project matching system based on dating site algorithmWorkstreams, transparent processes, dynamic outreach
Tripped up by disagreements and personality differencesDivergent visions sapped energy – the project unravelled
Simple concept: algorithm uses project meta-data to establish matches and propose ‘dates’Ambivalence over use of dating metaphor
Clear workflow processes: three teams, regular meetings, documentationIntense pace: how to maintain it?
The solution? Take inspiration from the public commons ethos at the origins of the internetContinued in FOSS: ‘built on love’ – how to harness this?
Proposal: everything is common: concepts, processes, ethosThis maximises opportunities and opens new challenges
Decisions and plans are made in common spacesReal time collaboration on EtherPad and Skype invaluable
Common spaces defined by mandate (what we do) and scope (focus and purpose)Make flows visible by documenting them
Participants must ‘own’ spacesParticipants focus on creating a shared learning environment – make it FUN!
Multi-task: sustain multiple conversations and processesAttention to communication across processes – how can we thread things together?
Essential self-development required: what do I need to do to better engage things?Care for the group – find joy in enabling others
Common ethos required to scale things up: ‘swarm ethics’Swarms take shape when [1] people engage for personal benefit, and [2] they engage in such a way that their engagement benefits the whole
Current interest in ‘gamifying’ work processes: short sessions focused on achievablesMake it FUN. Empower participants to apply their unique skills to the group
Open source approach to global problems is an opportunity yet to be realized.We are at a threshold moment. CotW aims to play a enabling role in the paradigm shift