getting inside information on collaboration

Char James-Tanny, JTF Associates, ModeratorKirsty Taylor, MincomSarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing Service, Inc.Anne Gentle, justwriteclick.comMichael Priestley, IBM

Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium Publishing

Slide 2Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Country of origin (“passport country”) Locale (where you live) Corporate culture Customer culture

Slide 3Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Who has the money? Who are the executives, and

where do they live? What locale has the most people?

Slide 4Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

East Coast versus West Coast Bible Belt versus Rust Belt North versus South Language differences in Europe, Switzerland Northern versus Southern Italy Eastern versus Western Germany Similar issues across India and China

Slide 5Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Outsourcing Offshoring Business units by location Teams integrated worldwide

Slide 6Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Be aware of: Religious differences Personal space Slang and idiom Hidden language differences Food Professional relationship expectations

Slide 7Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Status Egalitarian or hierarchical?

Decision process Consensus-driven or not?

Confrontation level How are disagreements handled?

Slide 8Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Impose “lead” culture on others? Fast and simple “Us” versus “them” is not a viable long-

term solution Understand and appreciate differences

Slide 9Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Recognize and appreciate differences Learn about cultural norms Don't stereotype Identify the “lead” culture – if there is one

Slide 10Copyright © 2008 Scriptorium Publishing, Inc.

Kirsty Taylor, Mincom

Slide 11Copyright © 2008 Kirsty Taylor

Work time preferences – got early birds or night owls?

Working across time zones & cross-over office hours MDT, EST, AEST, ACST (½ hour zone!),

AWST

Slide 12Copyright © 2008 Kirsty Taylor

Forms of communication – email, IM Differing acceptable meeting styles

Slide 13Copyright © 2008 Kirsty Taylor

Developing standards continually Adding new product lines into the CMS Evolving the information architecture Acquiring new, experienced staff & getting

their buy-in on the CMS they didn’t choose

Slide 14Copyright © 2008 Kirsty Taylor

Anne Gentle, justwriteclick.com

Slide 15Copyright © 2008 Anne Gentle

Adobe Labs: labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Main_PageApache wiki: wiki.apache.orgeBay: www.ebaywiki.comMicrosoft Developer Network (MSDN): msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx Motorola Q: www.motoqwiki.com Everything Q: wiki.everythingq.comSplunkBase: www.splunk.com/baseSun's OpenDS: www.opends.org/wikiOLPC:wiki.laptop.orgCisco:supportwiki.cisco.comSlide 16Copyright © 2008 Anne Gentle

Slide 17Copyright © 2008 Anne Gentle

Page Maintainer

Welcoming

Introduction

My Page

Sponsor

Barnraising

Acknowledge Goodness

Patron

Seed it

Naming conventions

Recognition

Slide 18Copyright © 2008 Anne Gentle

Reputation Reciprocity Attachment Efficiency

Slide 19Copyright © 2008 Anne Gentle

Motivations for online communities

The Economies of Online Collaboration

Michael Priestley, IBM

Slide 20Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation

A task is a task, regardless of who authors it Collaboratively created content may involve

different collaborators at different times (and sometimes none at all)

Don’t let tools dictate what you can do with your content (and who you can do it with)

Let your content and collaboration needs dictate what tools you use

Slide 21Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation

Slide 22Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation

1. Design

2. Develop3. Deploy

Authors

Architects

Developers,editorsTranslators

1. Market

2. Train3. Support

Marketers

Trainers

Technicalcommunicators

Techsupport

Users

Slide 23Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation

Pick tools with different capabilities but common standards

Use the right tool for the right job More collaboration should mean less

redundancy Avoid vendor lock-in (applies to opensource

too) Collaboration is a phase, not a content type

Slide 24Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation

Social web

Structured webSemantic web

Wikis, blogs…

structured content and collections….

folksonomies, tag clouds…

formal taxonomies…

Generic topics and metadata

Specialized topics and maps

Specialized maps and metadata

DITA

Slide 25Copyright © 2007, 2008 IBM Corporation