From BlueOxen

Gathering (February 24, 2007)

Eugene Eric Kim and Matthew O Connor are gathering with Gail Taylor, Todd Johnston, and Tiffany Von Emmel in Sebastopol (10am-4pm) to talk about Internet Technology and how it can be applied to collaboration. The goal is to be immersive (hard-learning) rather than conceptual.

What's interesting about this group -- compared to the demographic I've been considering in planning broader training programs -- is that all of these folks are expert practitioners in collaborative design and facilitation. Generally, the first barrier people have in thinking about Collaborative Tools is that they think about the tool before the collaboration. In my planned curriculum for Collaborative Technology Training, the early exercises are designed to break that habit. With these folks, we won't have that problem at all.

What's exciting about this group in general is that if they can overcome the technology learning barrier, then we can start collaborating very deeply on how all of this cool technology can be applied towards High-Performance Collaboration. But, we need to get them past that barrier, and in that sense, something that is somewhat training-oriented is necessary.

Eugene and Matthew will be the technology guides.

Ultimately, we want to develop a framework for how to think about technology so that it may be applied to collaborative problems. We want to surface key patterns and ideas associated with technology itself, but we also want to take advantage of the design knowledge of the participants, and see how that thinking may be applied to tools.

Agenda

10-10:30am -- Some ritual. Perhaps invite Tiffany to teach us something. Goal surfacing.

10:30-11:30am -- How do email and the web work? Todd, Gail, and Tiffany will be our teachers. When we get stuck, the teachers will help each other think through how things might work. Eugene and Matthew will step in here and there to insert their knowledge and help guide the group. The goal here is Deep Understanding of tools we use every day.

11:30am-12pm -- Develop collaborative scenarios. We'll walk through these for the rest of the afternoon. Facets:

• Asynchronous vs synchronous
• Tight-knit vs loose-knit group (i.e. Is there Trust and Shared Language?)
• Intergroup vs. Intragroup
• Concrete vs emergent goals
• Technology literacy of the group as a whole and individually
• Infrastructure / resources available
• Incorporating established patterns in existing groups

12-1pm -- Working lunch. Walk through a scenario, integrate tools. Eugene and Matthew provide little feedback.

1-2:30pm -- Walk through another scenario. Integrate tools. Now simulate it. Discuss patterns.

2:30-3:30pm -- Revisit original scenario, and see if participants would change anything.

3-4pm -- Reflection, closing ritual.

Possible Exercises

It would be interesting to do a "morning-in-a-life" exercise, where we each walk-through our morning rituals with our computers -- checking email, reading blogs and websites, calendaring, etc.