Online Tools As Space

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Gravity seems like magic. But we don't get distracted by gravity's magical properties when we apply it. Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Need to have the same approach to the physics of online spaces.

You can put things anywhere on the Web, and it's findable (more or less) because you can link to it.

Where should you put things? For example, what mailing list should you post to? When should you post on your blog versus a group blog? When and where should you put things on a Wiki?

With Web-based tools, you control the space. Mostly. APIs change the game. Blogs are an example of this. With email-based solutions, you usually do not control the space. Companies can control it by mandating certain tools and processes, but it's hard/impossible to control in a network. People's email spaces differ dramatically depending on the tools and processes they use. Some people are capable of handling very high loads of traffic on multiple mailing lists. Others are not.

Exercises to flesh out factors:

  • Mailing List versus cc'd mail. What's the difference between the two mechanisms? Why use one over the other? When would you use one over the other? Think about the problem of cross-posting and siloed mailing lists. What are some ways around these challenges?
  • Twitter

[t 1B]

Factors:

  • Findability
  • Proximity / distance
  • Space affordances (usability)
  • Boundaries (includes morphability / mashups)

Contents

Time Is Constant

Time is the enemy of group process, especially if the group needs to form (see Collab:Group Development). Andy Grove quote in November 2009 issue of Fast Company.

Spatial Properties

Some things from the physical world don't translate:

Some things do. For example, Neutral Space. If you put non-neutral branding all over an online tool, it's no longer Neutral Space, regardless if it's public and linkable.

Time does seem to translate, but online tools offer different affordances for dealing with time. Much of those affordances are centered around the artifact.

Something that does not translate is the ability to copy things, e.g. mashups. When I'm doing my work, I'd love to have all my artifacts in one place. But if I have workspaces spread all over the Internet, what can I do? There are ways to work around this (links, aggregation, etc.), although tool developers have a ways to go before truly exploiting this capability.

When you Think Out Loud in public but to a small group, that group can very suddenly turn into a huge group. The same does not go for, say, thinking out loud at your street corner. (Although in this age of cameras and microphones everywhere, don't be too sure of this.) This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to be aware of.

We have to be very careful about assumptions. We don't always understand the physical properties until we experience them firsthand. This is true of meatspace, but it's especially true of online space, and it's even more true when considering issues of scale. Wikis are the perfect example.

What does an online community look like? I've always been troubled by the writing-orientation of most online communities, because most people are kinesthetic. However, an online community does not have to be centered around writing. See Flickr, You Tube, podcasts. Online communities are usually centered around artifacts, written or not.

How do you know if there's a wall? Is it a private space or not? Clearly, people don't have a good sense of this, because they do things all the time that they wouldn't do if they knew it was a public space. The flip side of this is that good things happen as a result of this individualistic behavior in public spaces. del.icio.us, for example. (Technology is also changing Intimacy Gradients in meatspace, thanks to ubiquitous cell phone cameras and other things.)

See Also

Implications

Once you understand the space metaphor, now you can apply the same patterns of collaboration and community onto online tools. For example, what's the equivalent of a Water Cooler or Corner Store in an online space? How about a porch?

A question people commonly ask is, what if you build an online space, and no one comes? Turn it around and think of physical space. First, people have to know it's there. Second, people have to know its purpose. Third, people have to know what to do once they get there. Think about a person going to a gym for the first time, being overwhelmed by all the different contraptions. They know they're supposed to use them to exercise, but unless they know how it all works, they're probably just not going to show up. How would you work around it? Have an exercise partner, for example. All of these have exact analogs in the online space.

How about affordances in real-life that have yet to be translated to online space? We know that small groups are better than large groups, yet there are very few tools that encourage small group behavior. What about constraining time for presentation/discussion?

Great Physical Spaces

References

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