making essence work
DESCRIPTION
A proposal for an approach to move the E-Science/Sensemaking/Climate Change project forward.TRANSCRIPT
Making ESSENCE work
Aldo de Moor CommunitySense
the Netherlands
WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL
ESSENCE’09 - May 5, 2009
Mission of ESSENCE?• pilot software tools designed to help facilitate structured
analysis and dialogue.
• develop a comprehensive, distilled, visual map of the issues, evidence, arguments and options facing the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, and being tackled by many other networks, which will be available for all to explore and enrich across the web.
• build a definitive, public collective intelligence resource on the climate change debate.
• support dialogue that builds common ground, resolves conflict, and re-establishes trust
• To enhance the ability of people worldwide to collaborate on solving global wicked problems.
Insufficient use of tools
• Argument mapping in terms of defining concepts and relations is inherently difficult
• Maps too large for users to literally continue to see the bigger picture.
• the functionalities and interfaces are often way too complex for the average user.
• Who cares?– Incentives for argument creation?
– Incentives for argument use?
– How are creation and use processes related?
Towards actionable sensemaking• Sensemaking involving
– Relevant stakeholders
– Appropriate actions
• Issues– What types of maps? How to put the maps to good use?
– What alliances of stakeholders would have an interest in contributing to/making use of the maps?
– What goal-oriented argumentation needs do these actors have?
– What are incentives for making actor networks of creators and users of maps self-sustaining?
• Key question– What exact role do tool functionalities play in the
purposeful context of their communities of use?
Beyond argumentation tools
Tools in socio-technical context
Tool system
Mass-media
Governments
Social system“climate change policy making”
Subject matterexperts
?
Corporations
NGOsCitizens
Institutes
Journalists
Collaborative communities
Communities Strong, lasting interactions Bonds between members Common space
Collaborative communities Common goals Effective/efficient communication
Perform/coordinate work Community governance structures/processes Sense of community
Common space: Internet + face-to-face
Such communities don’t need tools, but services
Tool systems
Tool systemthe system of integrated and customized information and communication tools tailored to the specific information, communication, and coordination requirements of a collaborative community
Tool system levels Systems: “group report writing system” Tools: “blogs”, “courseware”, “authoring support tool” Modules: “position definition/taking”, “argument creation” Functions: “add argument pro”, “add argument con”
No standard solutions Socio-technical systems design
Collaborative communities need to evaluate the functionalities in their unique context of use
Understand the purpose of the technologies in this context Adopt a process view
Usage context Goals
Activities: operationalized goals, with deliverable
“writing a group report” Aspects: abstract goals, across processes and structures
“legitimacy”, “sociability” Actors
Detailed role ontologies
“Administrator”, “Facilitator”, “Member” “WikiChampion”, “WikiZenMaster” “Position Defender”, “Argument Summarizer”, “Report
Conclusion Editor” Domains
Professional culture, work practices, …
Collaboration patterns Patterns
Define relatively stable solutions to recurring problems at the right level of abstraction
Collaboration patterns Capture socio-technical lessons learnt in optimizing the
effectiveness and efficiency of collaboration processes Typology of collaboration patterns (De Moor, 2006)
Goal patterns Communication patterns Information patterns Task patterns Meta-patterns
E-learning case: an enabled communication pattern
Activation: socio-technical solutions
Research problem online collaborative communities Not lack of motivation
Many self and other-oriented motives to get critical mass, e.g. in Wikipedia
The ESSENCE community has at least the same drive Lack of activation
Fragmentation of communicative acts across tool system functionalities
Collaborative community activation supporting the initiation, execution, and evaluation of
goal-oriented (online) communication processes to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of collaboration
R&D objectives1. Frame these activation problems2. Model socio-technical design solutions
ESSENCE systems development• Community-tool systems
– 1st layer: argumentation tool system
• Tool functionalities and interoperability
• Sensemaking processes (gardening, federation)
– 2nd layer: external tool system: specific stakeholder services
• E.g. StateOfTheScienceAndPolitics-service for investigative reporters and policy makers
• Create – human and technical - “linking pins” between maps and services
• Define collaboration patterns of roles, functionalities, processes and norms
• Use patterns to configure services
• Evolve the system!