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John DeRiggi Assignment 3 1/28/02
I know of Microsofts NetMeeting that allows a users to share screen and take control of another person's mouse. Also, there are a number of online chat programs like instant messenger, icq, etc., make it possibe for people to collaborate on a large discussion or negotiation. File sharing peer-to-peer applicatons like napster, imesh, and limewire allow users to create an online music sharing community. My family and my relatives used to have a website that any member could upload information to, not as advanced as the swiki though. I have used all of the above technologies. Ive used each one several times. And Ive probably used imesh the most. The main benefit of peer-to-peer music sharing applications are that it allows me and others to discover music that we would never have heard if these programs didnt exist. The strengths of programs like these is that communities can grow quite large very fast and enjoy collaboration from anyone that has access to the internet. The weaknesses of some of theses applications is that they only support limited communication with others in the community. In general, to develop a framework for collaborative technology, I would try to compile all of the strengths of other collaborative technlolgies into one final product. I would want to develop something that could efficiently support a large number of users such as imesh or napster, but had the communication capabilities of microsoft's netmeeting. I would also want something that was easily accessible by all members of the community like my family web page once did. Also, Ivan Illich's "Deschooling of Society" discusses how primitive traditional classrooms are and how they do not foster creativity. I would concentrate on supporting creativity and active participation among all members of the design activty. I have not read books covering the topic of collaboration specifically. I have read books describing the collaboration process specific situations. "The Irony of Democracy" and "The American Presidency" described the process by which the Constitution of the United States was negotiated and drafted, outlining a collaborative design activity by several important stakeholders with much motivation. If Collaborative technology is used in a situation where people are used to being competitive with other individuals, then the technology may have little success. Environments where people are rewarded on individual achievement makes participants resistant to collaborating with others toward some shared goal.
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