LDI:General theory of collaboration

This is the collaborative research page for developing a general theory of collaboration (GTC).

Please use the discussion page for questions, proposals, criticism.

An LDI "Let's Do It" is a collaborative project management concept developed at Open Project Development.

Objectives

• To develop a general theory of collaboration - core theoretical principles which can be found to apply in most, if not all collaborative situations.

Hypothesis

A core set of observable dynamics exist which are common to all collaborative scenarios.

Additional dynamics exist and arise as collaborative scenarios branch and diversify in their applications, contexts and complexity.

These additional dynamics exist parallel to and nested within the core set of dynamics.

The core and additional dynamics may be different in collaborative scenarios enacted by non-human agents, i.e. computational agents etc.

Method

• Identify the core dynamics.
• Expand out for different contexts and applications.
• (In parallel) catalogue and link to examples of collaboration which illustrate the proposed dynamics.

To do

• As the initiator of this LDI, develop my (Mark Elliott's) position statement on the discussion page
  • Keep it simple - everyone collaborates, so everyone is a practitioner with relevant insight.
  • Disclaimer - I am not a sociologist...
• Develop a timeline for this LDI
• Articles to start: Collaborative dynamics, Trust, Knowledge sharing, collaborative media
• What is the generalised name of a collaboration's medium? e.g., in this case, it is a wiki page. (start collaborative media article)

Theoretical components

• Authorship, Coauthor, Collaborative writing - need to develop the generalised versions of these concepts, i.e. how are these components applied in any and every collaboration.
• Open-minded
• Shared understandings

Relevant MetaCollab Categories

• the the General theory of collaboration Category
• the Collaboration theory Category

MetaCollab articles

• Cooperation
• Collaboration theory: Contextual_collaboration
• references etc here: Dialectical collaboration, Dialogic collaboration, Hierarchical collaboration

External resources

• The Ideal Collaborative Team
• A Dynamic Theory of Collaboration: A Structural Approach to Facilitating Intergovernmental Use of Information Technology "This paper explores the dynamics of trust, collaboration, and knowledge sharing in the context of a multigovernmental, interorganizational project to design and implement a new information system..."
• The Evolution of SharedPlans (1998), Barbara J. Grosz, Sarit Kraus

GTC LDI Members

Mark Elliott 22:31, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Possible contributors

Individuals

• Dave Pollard – see Dave Pollard wikerview

Networks

• http://www.cooperationcommons.org/
• http://polyopticon.org for artistic perspective.
• http://www.kolabora.com/ - “The Online Collaboration News Radar”