collaboration patterns as building blocks for community informatics

Collaboration Patterns asBuilding Blocks forCommunity Informatics

CIRN Prato Conference - November 4, 2009

Aldo de MoorCommunitySense

the Netherlands

WWW.COMMUNITYSENSE.NL

Once upon a time...

ICTs 1993

ICTs 2009

Methodological pillars of CI

Common values

Socio-technical pattern languages

• Patterns– relatively stable solutions to recurring problems at

the right level of abstraction

• Pattern languages– networks of patterns that call upon one another– networks of patterns that call upon one another

• Socio-technical pattern languages– broad description of interactions between social

and technical systems

• Open question: how to use them?

Community purpose patterns: Liberating Voices

Functionality usage patterns: Wikipatterns

Designing the socio-techn system: collaboration patterns

Sensemaking tools

Mission of ESSENCE• pilot software tools designed to help facilitate st ructured

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 .

Mass-media

Governments

Social system“climate change policy making”

Subject matter

Corporations

NGOsInstitutesJournalists

Argument mapping

ESSENCE socio-technical system

Tool system

GovernmentsSubject matterexperts

?

Citizens

ESSENCE patterns

• Community purpose patterns– Citizen Journalism

• Wikipatterns– BarnRaising

– Wiki Charter– Wiki Charter

– Maintainer

• Secretary

• Refactorer

• Solicitor

• Architect

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

� Community and individual objectives� Community and individual objectives� Information patterns

� Content plus responsible actors� Communication patterns

� Desirable/acceptable interactions� Task patterns

� Who/what/when/how?� Meta-patterns

� Ensure quality of other patterns

A required information pattern

An enabled communication pattern

An "ecology of pattern languages”

Community Purpose Pattern Languages

Functionality Usage Pattern Languages

Collaboration Pattern Languages

HCI Pattern Languages

Software Engineering Pattern Languages

Conclusion

• CI is all about socio-technical systems

• Pattern languages key to better analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of socio-technical systems

• Collaboration patterns linking pin between • Collaboration patterns linking pin between community purpose and functionality usage patterns

• Towards “ecologies of pattern languages”

• Realizing our C&T potential