Interactive Exercise

Interactive Exercise I see the session working as follows:

• Marj's presentation/demonstration of the toolsDelegate interaction
• Interactive exercise using collaboration tools

The first part is pretty straightforward, a more succinct version of the DGPC presentation.

The interactive piece I see unfolding as follows:

Overall question:

• How can you improve the briefing note process using collaborative technology?

Sub-questions (or categories):

• When is a briefing note necessary?
• What information should a briefing note contain?
• What levels of approval are required and who has overall authority?
• What is the process for creating content for a briefing note?
• How can those responsible for content collaborate to create the content?
• What issues are important to consider?

This exercise needs to be positioned as a brainstorming session. Much like a breakout group gathered around a flip chart would do in a 2 day workshop...wait a second, that is what this is, except the reporting back process is captured and is part of a document. In a brainstorming session, there is no right or wrong answer and there are always more questions than answers. Whatever product we end up with will be the result of informed briefing note creators spending 20 minutes together talking about how they could use collaborative tools based on a brief demonstration of the possibilities.

Getting Ready for SMLF

At our meeting last Thursday - these one week-long projects are becoming habitual - we talked about the format of the meeting and agreed to have a dry run to ensure that we have an opportunity to recognize and resolve any technical issues.

The dryrun has been scheduled for Tuesday, May 22 at 3 pm in Gamble Hall.

Some of the things we will be testing include, in no particular order:

• accessing and editing the wiki through telework
• inviting 11 "regions" into a WebEx meeting
• jumping in and out of the firewall - from wiki to blog back to wiki
• 11 groups accessing the wiki at one time (but we will likely only have 5 laptops for the dryrun - we should try to get as many as possible)
• creating placeholders for the question - all on one page of the wiki? one sub-category per page?

We also agreed that there would be 11 Information specialists, each one sporting a fashionable t-shirt emblazoned with a stylized "i", to provide assistance and support to each of the laptop groups.

We also need to be prepared to respond to the inevitable question: "Quand seront disponibles ces utils technologiques?"

BarnRaising

BarnRaising Some research on Wiki creation revealed that what we are doing with the SMLF group next Thursday is referred to as BarnRaising http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/BarnRaising. Essentially, BarnRaising involves getting a like-minded group (I think everybody at the SMLF would agree the briefing note process can stand to be improved!) together at a designated time (Thursday, May 24 at 2:45 pm) to create content on a wiki together. Just when we thought we were on to something...it has already been named!At the bottom of this web page, which is really a wiki about wiki patterns and anti patterns, there is some terrific information. Recommended reading for sure!

Things we dont want to think about, but need to talk about...

I'm starting this entry, not because I want to, but because we need to be prepared. Rather than clog the to-do list entry with feedback intermingled with ideas, I thought I'd start this entry instead.

We need to consider what could go wrong and have action plans to address that. This is the place where these types of discussions need to happen. I think we are better of to start listing what can go wrong and how we will address it. If we have an action plan for each, then we are set. So, for the pessimists in the crowd, here is your chance to let it all out.....

I'll start .....

1) Can't get an internet connection
2) Can't sign on to telework
3) One of the laptops dies
4) We can't to Web EX
5) We can't get at the Wiki
6) We can get at the blog
7) We don't have the bandwidth
8) Two people edit the document at the same time
9) The people aren't interested in doing this
10) The interactive portion isn't interactive enough or can't accommodate enough people so we start losing the crowd.
11) Marj is sick that day


I'm sure there is more......

Our Next Challenge!

Well it is now 7 days and counting.....

We've taken on a great challenge but I'm confident that with the team we have, we are up to it. Thanks to everyone for your support, ideas, and confidence that we can make this happen. This goes a long way to showing that the IM/IT team here at NRCan can turn ideas (even risky ones like these) into action.

As we discussed today, we have lots to do to prepare for next week. Anna is preparing a list of tasks for everyone that will help us keep track of what we need to do before Thursday. We are working under pretty tight deadlines since the long weekend kind of gets in the way, so there is alot we need to get done before the dry run on Tuesday:
- set up all accounts for remote access and google signon
- set up the new blog
- ensure that we have some good content to navigate through
- appoint the 11 information specialists. All must attend the dry run on Tuesday.
- bring great ideas of information to navigate through for the demo on Thursday

I'm sure Anna has alot more on her list and will add more here. Keep submitting your great ideas and checking in here for latest updates! We can do this!

Moving Day

SSO has completed the transfer of Collabpathfinder Blog to the internal blog. as per the Chris W's email below:

I've recreated the files and rebuilt the blog as best I could etc.. from the original http://collabpathfinder.blogspot.com/ and placed within the http://wwwint.nrcan-rncan.gc.ca/collabpathfinder/ blog.
I've added the original users. So they may want to login and modifiy their passwords.
The passwords are their lastname and first initial... for example... John Doe would be 'doej' etc.. etc..

Note that we are still sorting out format etc and there will be a bit of learning curve moving from one blog system to another but as with other blog software it is quite basic. Please have a look and start posting content when you can. If you need assistance let me know.

Blog and Wiki for DGSPC

A key outcome from the presentation to dgspc was the request by the committee members to use the the blog and wiki for their policy committee work. We are now trying figure out how to set these things up from two perspectives: Technical and IM support.

Technical aspects

A lot will depend on their requirements but our initial take on this is that unless they feel they need to restrict access we can use the Wiki101 for the collaborative document work. If not then
we will look at how to restrict access to authorized users or if all else fails create another wiki instance (not my favorite option)

It will take a bit of work for the internal nrcan blog since:

i) Blogs have to be created by the blog admin (not such a problem we know how to do it now)

ii) If an individual wishes to comment on a blog, admin has to create an account, in other words users cannot self-register. We could use anonymous accounts but this is not a preferred option. Marc Primeau and I have agreed to pool some resources to sort these issues out as quickly as possible

iii) Finally there are some performance issues re speed, with the blog that need to be looked at.

IM aspects

As was noted at the meeting yesterday blogs and wikis could have significant impacts on culture and the way we work. I would guess that this is also true for dgs and associates. for that reason we should be sure that there is adequate support re bliki orientation for all the key participants. The more Marj's we have rolling up their sleeves and using the technology the better. We hvae begun discussions with Rose and Thorne..and Stephane on how we could provide this kind of support through the libraries.

We are planning to meet very soon with DGSPC committee members to get a better fix on their needs. I will update after that, but in the interim, if there are considerations we have missed, options we should look at or even questions that should be answered please comment.

Thanks

What a Success!

The demo went off without a hitch! Thanks everyone for all your contributions and support. I think we did a great job at showing what a collaborative, team approach can achieve in a very short timeframe. The audience was engaged and I think saw the power that these tools can bring to their desktop. We will keep this blog going now that we have been asked to take this to the Senior Management meeting on May 24 or 25.

So, on that note.....let get a dialogue going on next steps for creating an even more powerful demo of the powers of collaboration. Thoughts?

A Demo Takes Shape....

Keep you fingers and toes crossed....this is the start of a just-in-time presentation on collaborative technology.

Today we did our dry run for the presentation and I am impressed by how far we've come in such a short period of time. We have absolutely shown the ability to generate and store information by relying on the collaborative knowledge and energy the community. I think this is one of the most exciting presentations I've been involved in. I love the way that the entire team came together...with only one meeting (not counting our dry run today), a few email, and lots of blogging.

The power of the technology exponentially increases the amount of knowledge available ...without clogging our email and the number of documents we send around. The virtual meetings and exchanges that we can participate in through webex will go a long way to bring together a geographically dispersed department.

Thanks to all for pitching in to help out on this. Great job everyone!!! Keep adding info. As we discussed today, we will soon move from this external blog to our internal one, but we won't lose our entries or our enthusiasm during the switch!

I will do another post after the demo tomorrow.

One Day to go until The Demo

We have one day to go until we perform the 'live' test of our experiment to use our community of knowledge to pull together a presentation on the potential use of collaborative technology at NRCan. We have made great progress so far. We have created info on the wiki, learned about many new tools, and generated excitement in our team of the potential power of these tools.

Today we will do a dry run to round out the power of the collaborative workspace with virtual meeting spaces that bring together groups of people quickly and easily, regardless of location. Our challenge today is to determine how best to share the information and demonstrate the technology in a 30 minute timeslot. We won't be able to show everything we learned, but our goal is to get the audience as excited as we are about the potential of these tools to change the way we approach work and how we create and share knowledge and information.

Our work won't end following the demonstration tomorrow. We are launching a key component of our IM Strategy --to exploit the value of collaborative technology to benefit NRCan. As such, from this point on we will be managing this work as a project with the objective to prepare a business case by Fall, 2007. During this time we will continue working on several pathfinders to search out, evaluate, demonstrate and use collaborative tools in the workplace. Anna has posted the high level project plan.

This has been an interesting experiment. One one hand I still sense some reluctance to contribute to the blog, while on the other, people have come forward to ask if they can contribute and post information. As the technology catches on, I expect our comfort level to publicly post information will increase.

Collaborative Technology Work Plan

Our work plan as presented to the DGPC chair.

Collaborative technology is about developing documents, sharing decision making and managing knowledge in a collaborative way. It is essentially changing the way we work and the tools we use. Through the use of new technology, NRCan can implement a new approach to work that enables collaboration regardless of location, and encourages an organic, community-driven culture of information creation and sharing.

• March 29 - August 17
  
  Wiki 101 - Wiki Pilot at NRCan. Create a wiki to test collaborative concepts and identify any issues or concerns for broad implementation
• May 1
  
  Form a work team to brainstorm collaborative technology and begin work on presentation for DGPC.
  Create blog and wiki entries to enable the collaborative creation of a presentation for DGPC
• May 9
  
  Presentation of Collaborative Technology to DGPC
• Ongoing
  
  Creating Innovations Environment for testing, demonstrating and evaluating emerging technologies and tools
• September 2007
  
  Wiki 101 - Analysis of pilot and recommendations for next steps
• November 2007
  
  Collaborative tools pathfinder projects will be done to examine technology, its benefits, and issues prior to broad implementation. Projects will involve both sector and technical personnel. We will leverage expertise and projects from sectors already using collaborative technology.
• Ongoing through November 2007
  
  Technology Business Case: a full business case will be prepared to evaluate impact, value and requirements for broad implementation of collaborative technology.

Podcast

I have included a link...well at least hoping I have...of a podcast I found in my web travels. It is a brief discussion about Web 2.0. and how collaborative tools are becoming the norm. I sense there is a bit of controversy over the origins of Web 2.0 and what it actually means...nothing like a controversy to raise the profile...but nonetheless, I did find this an interesting discussion and think that it could be useful to point to in the presentation on Wednesday. Meaning, the panel of IM and IT gurus make some comments that may really resonate well with NRCan's senior management.

Crowdsourcing @ Wikipedia

There is plenty of great content up on Wikipedia that we could learn from. Many have contributed details and examples of crowdsourcing that I thought might be a helpful read.

Making it Real at NRCan

Great work everyone! The content is coming along very nicely and we are getting a good sense of what types of tools are avaible. As our presentation is drawing near and in anticipation of questions such as "When can we start using this", I'd like to expand the content to include 'what we can do now at NRCan'. In this area we need to talk about what is going on now. My proposal is that we start another wiki entry called "NRCan's Collaborative Technology Project". This can provide information about the project, a link to a full project blog (maybe this site is the start of that?), and information about pilots, pathfinders, areas where these tools are being used, planned activities, etc.

This wiki entry can also provide information about what tools people can use now versus those that are planned or in pilot. We can also give information about who to contact and when. Perhaps we can even encourage a community driven inventory of work going on. As you can, lots of ideas to explore.

In the meantime, please:

1. Let me know if you agree to my suggestions above re another wiki entry

2. Expand the Collaborative Tools wiki entries to include "What we can do now at NRCan"

3. Tell me you would find it useful to transform this site to be a full Project Blog, or create another Blog for the project and use this site solely for this short-term experiment in creating a collaborative presentation.

Three days to go until the presentation....please keep contributing!

Blogistics

Sorry for the bad attempt at a pun....

In response to Marjs questions, I have begun to add sections to the collaborative tools wiki including the definition and some description of blogs and wikis. I have also added a beginning description of their potential uses in a government context. Diane will also be adding a link to the a more detailed wiki entry on some of the challenges and issues being raised by the wiki101 ie official languages, cultural issues, atip etc....


I was hoping other participants would take ownership of some of the other elements in terms of giving a description of them, how they are or could be used in government but also would provide a sense of how they might be demo'ed. In particular the webx and Instant Messaging. On the other hand I am not sure about chatrooms do they still exist??


As for the question as to how much to demo, i would say that if we can do blog wiki and webx we are doing well....Comments?

Day 2 Summary - Some Good Discussions

We finished another day working through our blog. Thanks to everyone who responded....from your discussions I think I'm getting a sense of how we might do this. I must confess that I'm wondering if email would have been just as fast for communication. Perhaps just as fast, but tonight as I'm reading through everything, conveniently located in one spot, I'm seeing some value (and my overloaded email account is thanking me).

From today's discussion, I think we are in agreement that we will continue the discussion about what we will do and how to do it here on the blog. Tomorrow I would like to start populating the wiki. I have started a wiki entry on Collaborative Tools. I would like each of you to please reference that entry and start populating it with information. As a start, lets begin with the following sections:

A definition of collaborative technology.
A definition of a wiki and the Wiki 101 pilot.
A definition of a blog and a description of how blogs are used.
A definition and description of Instant Messaging.
Information about del.icio.us and how it is used.
Information on Search technology.

These isn't a prescriptive list and I expect that we will want to add informaton about additional tools.

Some final questions and considerations:

Can we link to the wiki from the blog (and vice versa)? If so, lets do that.
Can we link to a live chat from the blog? If so, lets be ready to demo that.
Do you have other good ideas? If so, share them.

Good luck on day 3 and I look forward to seeing your great info on the wiki tomorrow.

Wiki Example

I received a link from a friend today that explains how to find and retrieve digital maps from the NRCan Internet website. I looked at the process and was amazed at the different steps required. How could I communicate this process to anyone so they could find their maps? How about the Wiki?

Here is a page I created in the 100 to 100 Wiki:

http://wiki.nrcan.gc.ca/index.php?title=Digital_Maps

The instructions are not complete (and may not be completely accurate). Great thing is that anyone can step in and fix where my instructions are incorrect or incomplete.

End of Day 1 on the Blog

I think we have gotten off to a good start. I will be sending all of you an invitation to contribute to the blog. I granting each team member author privileges so that you can contribute postings, or comments...your choice as to which is best. If there are settings that I should establish as owner of this blog, please let me know...I'm new to this and just learning so all suggestions and help are welcome.

As we move forward to Day 2, I'd like to focus on the end result we want to achieve at the end of this exercise. Our goal is to have, by Wednesday, a demonstration of the potential power of collaborative technology. We recognize we can only touch the tip of the iceberg, but we want to demonstrate how quickly we were able to get this up and running, and achieve a deliverable in a relatively short time. Therefore, we need to make some decisions on our presentation.

First off, should the presentation itself be on the wiki or on the blog? Based on Chris's response, the wiki may be the place to craft the story of collaborative tools. I'd like to decide this by Thursday so that we can start crafting the story (together).

What other tools should we showcase to demonstrate the power of collaborative technology? Remember we only have 15 minutes or so and until next Wednesday morning to prepare.

What information can we share about existing use of collaborative tools in use in the department today?

Can we give a live demonstration of remote access...ie have some of us in various rooms connected, participating and contributing?

I'm sure there is alot more we can think about but this is enough for today. Please feel free to add to this list of questions. Consider this a team meeting....the floor is now open for comments, answers and suggestions! I'll check in again on Day 2.

Getting the blog rolling

Our meeting this morning to kick off this collaborative approach to working project was energizing. The ideas were free flowing, participants were enthusiastic and yes, I could sense a bit of trepidation but I think that's OK. This is a whole new way of working.

So, to get the blog rolling, here's my summary of the meeting:

1. Marj has volunteered to lead the "Developing Collaborative Technologies" initiative, one of a number of initiatives established to move forward from North Star. The initiatives are being led by various DGs in the department that are part of (or contribute to) the DG Policy and Science Committee (DGPC).

2. She has assembled a group consisting of representation from IMB (IM, IT and NRCan Library) and SSO to help in the development of this project...as a starting point...I suppose the sky is the limit after that! (Oh, by the way, I am fairly new at blogging so not sure of the etiquette required, if any, around the use of editorial comments.)

3. In the spirit of collaborative technologies, Marj suggested her presentation to the DGPC use a technology to demonstrate some collaborative possibilities. And so, this blog was born.

4. As a group, we agreed to post ideas, suggestions, links etc., as Peter has indicated, to this blog and for her presentation next Wednesday (May 9), Marj would use this blog to take the committee through our collaborative approach of preparing for the presentation (kind of like a Bleck...combination deck and blog) as a practical example of collaborative technology in action.

5. See Chris Taylor's entry for more detail regarding some of the collaborative tools we discussed.

6. We also discussed the potential these tools and technologies have in allowing us to share information easily - with each other and with our clients and to access information required for decision making. We recognize there are risks associated with this approach (processes, costs, management issues, etc.) and that there is an increasing appetite for change. So off we boldly go!

Open Thoughts on the Blog

even though I do have author access i cannot edit Marj's blog. I can however add an entry. so just to get the ball rolling:

1) I would suggest that the first blog entry should be very much a background piece as marj outlined this morning with the key questions that were raised by her at the meeting. This should be followed up by us individually putting in our comments responses the questions and links to appropriate resources, examples, definitions etc.

2) Marj and authors will then craft the second blog entry synthesizing the responses into a strategy of what needs to be presented etc. ie webx simulation using a contributor from the regions/ example of the wiki for collaborative document sharing. Is this the dgspc diagnostique? a draft business case for collaborative tools or are we going to use the wiki 101?

Not sure we will need an additional blog entry on this but I leave that open for discussion

Pathfinder Approach

This is the start of my pathfinder blog. It will be used to test a new approach to working collaboratively on a project with tight timeframes and people from various locations throughout the organization. We have committed to starting this initiative with one meeting. The rest of this project will be done entirely through collaborative technology. Wish us luck!