Designing Collaboration

Designing collaboration. boundary objects, co-design, knotworking and P2P

By Mariana Salgado

Design Thinking courseLaurea University of Applied Sciences

Multidisciplinarity is a non-integrative mixtureof disciplines in that each discipline retains its methodologies and assumptions without change or development from other disciplines within the multidisciplinary relationship.

An interdisciplinary field crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have emerged.

Transdisciplinarity connotes a research strategy that crosses many disciplinary boundaries to create a holistic approach.

Design as a social process

Bucciarelli, Louis L. Design Collaboration: Who's in? Who's out?. In Design Spaces. Edited by Binder Thomas and Hellström Maria. p.64-71

Participants spend time and energy discussing, listening, proposing, and arguing with one another

about their proposals which will ultimately fix the form of the design

This sort of negotiation and exchange is hard work

But it enriches end results

Design engages different participants- individual with different competencies, technical interests

and responsibilities.

Sometimes each participant work alone, searching,

innovating, modeling, testing and conjecturing within their own domain.

Defined by their own particular expertise.

He has to identify his expertise and be able

to communicate his findings to the other.

Each participant has a certain freedom and

authority over the others.

He needs to justify his proposal is his authority

is to carry weight.

Each participant needs not just to listen, but activelyconsider the merits of the proposals and claims from

the others. No one person knows all the required to carry through

the design.

A collective sense of good and bad may be constructedin the process of designing.

If the social negotiation goes well and participants

trust each other's competenceit becomes apparent in the critique phase.

But the important point is to open up the design processto outsiders. To recognize their contribution early in the

design process.

Free up the process to engage the client, the customerand the user early in the process when the concepts

are still in flux.

For that we need boundary objects that can motivate dialogue.

Boundary objects

Star, Susan Leigh, Griesemer, James R. (1989) Institutional Ecology, 'Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 387-420

Phleps, Andreas F. and Reddy, Madhu. (2009).The influence of Boundary Objects on Group Collaboration in Contruction Project Teams. Group 09. Florida. USA.

Gal, Uri; Yoo Youngjin and Boland Richard J. The Dynamics of Boundary Objects, Social Infrastructures and Social Identities. Working papers on Information Systemss, 4 (11). http://sprouts.aisnet.org/4-11

Artifacts, documents, vocabulary that can help people from different communities build a shared understanding.

Picture by Pulpolux !!!

point of mediation and negotiationPicture by Pulpolux !!!

Ambiguous enough to allow for negotiation

Picture by Pulpolux !!!

Contain sufficient detail to be understandable by both parties utilizing the object Picture by Pulpolux !!!

Although neither party may understand the full context of use by the other. Picture by Pulpolux !!!

Carry information and context that can be use to translate, transfer, and transform knowledgebetween communities of practices. Picture by Pulpolux !!!

The value of the project comes when that tacit knowledge from various individuals is shared.

Picture by Pulpolux !!!

Boundary objects play a role in codifying that tacit information that is communicated to others

Picture by Pulpolux !!!

More they are use, more are trustedPicture by Pulpolux !!!

In today business we are working more and more in flexible networks rapidly emerging and disappearing.

Participants do not know each other beforehand and need to be able to quickly create collaborative partnerships for productively coordinate their activities.

Knotworking is the expert work that takes place in these projects. It represents dynamically changing and distributed collaborative work.

Knotworking

Engeström, Y., Engeström, R. & Vähäaho, T. (1999). When the Center does Not Hold: The Importance of Knotworking. In S. Chaiklin, M. Hedegaard & U.J. Jensen (Eds). Activity Theory and Social Practice: Cultural-HIstorical Approaches. Arhus University Press, 345-374.

In the Free-Libre and Open Source movement there is a conscious effort to engage as many interested and competent parties as possible.

Pic

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by

Cra

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on

They claim that in this way they produce a robust system at a faster pace.

This way of doing things is P2P production.

RocketRaccoon

Picture by RocketRaccoon

P2P production

Bauwens M. (2005) The Political Economy of Peer Production. In Kroker A, Kroker M (eds) 100 Days of Theory. Available online: http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499

Benkler, Y. (2006). The Wealth of Networks : How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. {Yale University Press}.

Good examples are talkoot

and Wikipedia

The common characteristics of the

good collaborative projects is that the rules are clear to

everybody.

Picture by doug88888

Picture by doug88888

Goals are shared

though the outcome might be

unclear or unknown.

There is ability to manage conflicting interests.

Picture by E-nat

There is a believe and an interest in making the proposal grow in a dialogue with the others

Picture by rachelkillsemo

re-examining own assumptions.

Picture by JimFenton

together

roles

shared responsibility

social process

co-design

boundary objects

prototypes

teamwork

P2P

collaboration

Thanks!

mariana.salgado@laurea.fi

mariana.salgado@iki.fi