'Collaboration' is a process
[1] defined by the
recursive interaction of knowledge
[2] and mutual learning between two or more people who are working together,
[3] in an intellectual endeavor,
[4] [5] toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature.
[6] Collaboration does not necessarily require
leadership and can even bring better results through
decentralization and
egalitarianism.
[7]
History of collaboration
In the current, organized practice of collaboration, many theories and movements have historical precedent:
Trade
The
trade of goods is an economic activity providing mutual benefit
Trade originated with the
start of communication in
prehistoric times. Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered goods and services from each other when there was no such thing as the modern day currency.
Peter Watson dates the
history of long-distance commerce from
circa 150,000 years ago.
[8]
Trade exists for many reasons. Due to specialisation and division of labor, most people concentrate on a small aspect of production, trading for other products. Trade exists between regions because different regions have a
comparative advantage in the production of some tradable commodity, or because different regions' size allows for the benefits of
mass production. As such, trade at
market prices between locations benefits both locations.
Community organization
Organization and cooperation between community members provides economic and social benefits
''Main article:
intentional community''
An 'intentional community' is a planned
residential community designed to promote a much higher degree of
social interaction than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common
social,
political or
spiritual vision. They also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include
cohousing, residential
land trusts,
ecovillages,
communes,
kibbutzim,
ashrams, and
housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community's existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned by the community).
;
Hutterite, Austria (1500s)
:Hutterites practice a near-total community of goods: all property is owned by the colony, and provisions for individual members and their families come from the common resources. This practice is based largely on Hutterite interpretation of passages in chapters 2, 4, and 5 of
Acts, which speak of the believers "having all things in common". Thus the colony owns and operates its buildings and equipment like a
corporation. Housing units are built and assigned to individual families but belong to the colony and there is very little personal property. Meals are taken by the entire colony in a common long room.
;
Oneida Community,
Oneida, New York (1848)
:The Oneida Community practiced ''
Communalism'' (in the sense of communal property and possessions) and ''Mutual Criticism'', where every member of the community was subject to criticism by committee or the community as a whole, during a general meeting. The goal was to eliminate bad character traits.
;Early
Kibbutz settlements founded near
Jerusalem (1890)
:A Kibbutz is an
Israeli collective community. The movement combines
socialism and
Zionism in a form of practical
Labor Zionism, founded at a time when independent farming was not practical or perhaps more correctly—not practicable. Forced by necessity into communal life, and inspired by their own ideology, the kibbutz members developed a pure communal mode of living that attracted interest from the entire world. While the kibbutzim lasted for several generations as
utopian communities, most of today's kibbutzim are scarcely different from the capitalist enterprises and regular towns to which the kibbutzim were originally supposed to be alternatives.
Modern art
★ DADA—Switzerland
★ Impressionists Paris
★ Islington, London
★ Modernists Russia
Game theory
Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics and economics that looks at situations where multiple players make decisions in an attempt to maximize their returns. The first documented discussion of it is a letter written by
James Waldegrave in 1713.
Antoine Augustin Cournot's ''Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth'' in 1838 provided the first general theory. It was not until 1928 that this became a recognized, unique field when
John von Neumann published a series of papers. Von Neumann's work in game theory culminated in the 1944 book The ''Theory of Games and Economic Behavior'' by von Neumann and
Oskar Morgenstern. In 1950, the first discussion of the prisoner's dilemma appeared, and an experiment was undertaken on this game at the
RAND corporation.
Military-industrial complex
The term 'military-industrial complex' (MIC) refers to a close and
symbiotic relationship among a nation's
armed forces, its
private industry, and associated
political and commercial interests. In such a system, the military is dependent on industry to supply material and other support, while the defense industry depends on government for revenue.
;
Skunk Works
:Skunk Works is a term used in engineering and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, tasked with working on advanced or secret projects. Founded at
Lockheed Martin in 1943, the team developed highly innovative aircraft in short time frames, even beating its first deadline by 37 days.
[9] Creator of the organization,
Kelly Johnson is said to have been an 'organizing genius' and had
fourteen basic operating rules.
;
Manhattan Project
:The 'Manhattan Project' was the project to develop the first
nuclear weapon (atomic bomb) during
World War II by the
United States, the
United Kingdom and
Canada. Formally designated as the 'Manhattan Engineer District' ('MED'), it refers specifically to the period of the project from 1941–1946 under the control of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the administration of General
Leslie R. Groves. The scientific research was directed by American
physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.
:While the aforementioned persons were influential in the project itself, the value of this project as an influence on organized collaboration is better attributed to
Vannevar Bush.
In early
1940, bush lobbied for the creation of the
National Defense Research Committee. Frustrated by previous bureaucratic failures in implementing technology in
World War I, Bush sought to organize the scientific power of the
United States for greater success.
:The project succeeded in developing and detonating three nuclear weapons in 1945: a
test detonation of a
plutonium implosion bomb on
July 16 (the
Trinity test) near
Alamogordo, New Mexico; an
enriched uranium bomb code-named "
Little Boy" on
August 6 over
Hiroshima,
Japan; and a second
plutonium bomb, code-named "
Fat Man" on
August 9 over
Nagasaki, Japan.
Project management
As a discipline, Project Management developed from different fields of application including construction, engineering, and defense. In the United States, the forefather of project management is
Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famously known for his use of the
"bar" chart as a project management tool, for being an associate of
Frederick Winslow Taylor's theories of
scientific management,
[10] and for his study of the work and management of Navy ship building. His work is the forerunner to many modern project management tools including the
work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly
Gantt charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed: (1) the "
Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, developed as part of the
United States Navy's (in conjunction with the
Lockheed Corporation)
Polaris missile submarine program;
[11] and (2) the "
Critical Path Method" (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both
DuPont Corporation and
Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.
In 1969, the
Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed to serve the interest of the project management industry. The premise of PMI is that the tools and techniques of project management are common even among the widespread application of projects from the
software industry to the construction industry. In 1981, the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of what has become ''
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'' (PMBOK), containing the standards and guidelines of practice that are widely used throughout the profession. The
International Project Management Association (IPMA), founded in Europe in 1967, has undergone a similar development and instituted the IPMA Project Baseline. Both organizations are now participating in the development of a global project management standard.
Art Groups
;
Fluxus
:An international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. Fluxus encouraged a
do it yourself aesthetic, and valued simplicity over complexity. Like
Dada before it, Fluxus included a strong current of anti-commercialism and an
anti-art sensibility, disparaging the conventional market-driven art world in favor of an artist-centered creative practice. As Fluxus artist Robert Filliou wrote, however, Fluxus differed from Dada in its richer set of aspirations, and the positive social and communitarian aspirations of Fluxus far outweighed the anti-art tendency that also marked the group.
;
Situationist International
:The 'Situationist International (SI)' was a small group of international political and artistic
agitators with roots in
Marxism,
Lettrism and the early 20th century European artistic and political
avant-gardes. Formed in 1957, the SI was active in Europe through the 1960s and aspired to major social and political transformations. In the 1960s it split into a number of different groups, including the Situationist Bauhaus, the Antinational and the
Second Situationist International. The first SI disbanded in 1972.
[12]
Feminism
;
California State University, Fresno (
Feminist Art Movement)
:In 1970, by
Judy Chicago founded a feminist art education program
;
California Institute of the Arts (
Feminist Art Movement)
:In 1971,
Judy Chicago and
Miriam Schapiro founded a feminist art education program
;
Woman's Building (
Feminist Art Movement)
:The Woman's Building was a non-profit public art and educational center focused on showcasing women's art and culture. It existed in Los Angeles from 1973 to 1991.
Womanhouse, an installation organized by this center in 1972, encouraged participants to work together.
Back to the land
''Main article:
Back to the land
★ 1960s, 1970s—beginning in the USA, this is a movement generally known to be from 'hippies.'
Academia
;
Black Mountain College
:Founded in
1933 by
John Andrew Rice,
Theodore Dreier and other former faculty of
Rollins College, Black Mountain was experimental by nature and committed to an
interdisciplinary approach, attracting a faculty which included many of America's leading visual artists, poets, and designers.
:Operating in a relatively isolated rural location with little budget, Black Mountain College inculcated an informal and collaborative spirit, and over its lifetime attracted a venerable roster of instructors. Some of the innovations, relationships and unexpected connections formed at Black Mountain would prove to have a lasting influence on the postwar American art scene, high culture, and eventually
pop culture.
Buckminster Fuller met student
Kenneth Snelson at Black Mountain, and the result was the first
geodesic dome (improvised out of slats in the school's back yard);
Merce Cunningham formed his dance company; and
John Cage staged his first
happening.
:Not a haphazardly conceived venture, Black Mountain College was a consciously directed
liberal arts school that grew out of the
progressive education movement. In its day it was a unique educational experiment for the artists and writers who conducted it, and as such an important incubator for the American
avant garde. Black Mountain proved to be an important precursor to and prototype for many of the alternative colleges of today ranging from the
University of California, Santa Cruz to
Hampshire College and
Evergreen State College, among others.
;
Learning Community
The Evergreen signature clock tower
:Dr. Wolff-Michael Roth and Stuart Lee of the
University of Victoria assert
[13] that until the early 1990s the individual was the 'unit of instruction' and the focus of research, as seen in
Piaget-derived
constructivism and
cognitive psychology. The two observed that researchers and practitioners switched
[14][15] to the idea that knowing is 'better' thought of as a cultural practice.
[16][17][18][19] Roth and Lee also claim
13 that this led to changes in learning and teaching design in which students were encouraged to share their ways of doing mathematics, history, science, with each other. In other words, that children take part in the construction of consensual domains, and 'participate in the negotiation and institutionalisation of … meaning'. In effect, they are participating in 'learning communities.'
:This analysis does not take account of the appearance of Learning communities in the United States in the early
1980s. For example,
The Evergreen State College, which is widely considered a pioneer in this area, established an intercollegiate learning community in 1984. In 1985, this same college established the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education, which focuses on collaborative education approaches, including learning communities as one of its centerpieces.
Collaboration as process
''Main article:
Collaborative method''
Collaborative methods are processes, behaviors and conversations that relate to collaboration between individuals.
7 These methods specifically aim to increase the success of
teams as they engage in collaborative
problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to
objectively document
personal traits with the goal improving performance in current and future projects.
Arts
Collaboration—or joint production by two or more artists—is a common style among musicians and performance artists. It has not been so popular, on the other hand, in the world of art, and especially in modern art. But the strong sense of individualism long possessed by artists of fine art began to wane around the 1960s, and some artists working in units have emerged and become widely known along with the development of new media based on the advances in information technology. They have changed the concept of art into something that can be engaged in by more than individual artists alone.
Business
Collaboration in business can be found both inter- and intra-organization and ranges from the simplicity of a
partnership to the complexity of a
multinational corporation.
See also :
Management cybernetics
Music
Musical collaboration occurs when one or more musicians in different places or groups work on the same album or song. Collaboration between musicians, especially with regards to jazz, is often heralded as the epitome of complex collaborative practice. Special software has been written to facilitate musical collaboration over the
internet, such as
VSTunnel.
Several awards exist specifically for collaboration in music:
★
Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals—awarded since 1988
★
Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals—awarded since 1995
★
Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration—awarded since 2002
Publishing
Collaboration in publishing can be as simple as dual-authorship or as complex as
commons-based peer production. Technological examples include
Usenet,
e-mail lists,
blogs and
Wikis while '
brick and mortar' examples include
monographs (
books) and
periodicals such as
newspapers,
journals and
magazines.
Science
Co-authorships in published papers had grown significantly from 1990 to 2005.
[20]
Technology
Both as entertainment and as a problem-solving tool, collaboration in technology encompasses
video games,
distributed computing, knowledge sharing and communication tools. Many large companies are developing enterprise collaboration strategies and standardizing on a
collaboration platform.
Collaboration in the technology sector refers to a wide variety of tools that enable groups of people to work together. Collaboration encompasses both asynchronous and synchronous methods of communication and serves as an umbrella-term for a wide variety of software packages. Perhaps the most commonly associated form of synchronous collaboration is web conferencing using tools such as
WebEX or Microsoft Live Meeting but the term can easily be applied to Instant Messaging as well.
Commons-based peer production
Massively distributed collaboration
See also
★
Collaborative learning-work
★
Collaborative software
★
Conference call
★
Critical thinking
★
Design thinking
★
General theory of collaboration
★
Mass collaboration
★
Problem solving
★
Unorganisation
References
1. Collaboration, ''Dictionary.com'', 2007
2. Marinez-Moyano, I. J. ''Exploring the Dynamics of Collaboration in Interorganizational Settings'', Ch. 4, p. 83, in Schuman (Editor). ''Creating a Culture of Collaboration''. Jossey-Bass, 2006. ISBN 0-7879-8116-8.
3. Oxford University Press. ''Ask.Oxford.com'', 2007.
4. Collaborate, ''Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary'', 2007
5. Collaboration, ''Encyclopedia Brittanica Online'', 2007
6. Collaboration, ''Oxford English Dictionary'', Second Edition, (1989). (Eds.) J. A. Simpson & E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Spence, Muneera U. ''"Graphic Design: Collaborative Processes = Understanding Self and Others."'' (lecture) Art 325: Collaborative Processes. Fairbanks Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. 13 Apr. 2006.
8. Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention from Fire to Freud, Watson, Peter, , , HarperCollins, 2005, ISBN 0-06-621064-X Introduction.
9. Bennis, Warren and Patricia :Ward Biederman. ''Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration.'' Perseus Books, 1997.
10. http://principles-of-scientific-management.blogspot.com/
11. http://www.boozallen.com/about/history/history_5
12. http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/articles/00000011.shtml
13. Roth, W-M. and Lee, Y-J. (2006) Contradictions in theorising and implementing communities in education. Educational Research Review, 1, (1), pp27–40.
14. Lave, J. (1988) Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
15. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
16. Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), pp32–42.
17. Roth, W.-M., & Bowen, G. M. (1995) Knowing and interacting: A study of culture, practices, and resources in a grade 8 open-inquiry science classroom guided by a cognitive apprenticeship metaphor. Cognition and Instruction, 13, 73–128.
18. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3, pp265–283.
19. The Cognition and Technology Group (1994). From visual word problems to learning communities: Changing conceptions of cognitive research. In K. McGilly (Ed.), Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 157–200). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
20. Wagner, Caroline S. and Loet Leydesdorff. ''Globalisation in the network of science in 2005: The diffusion of international collaboration and the formation of a core group.''
Bibliography
★ Sandor Schuman (Editor). ''
Creating a Culture of Collaboration''. Jossey-Bass, 2006. ISBN 0-7879-8116-8
★ Schneider, Florian: ''
Collaboration: Some Thoughts Concerning New Ways of Learning and Working Together.'', in: Academy, edited by Angelika Nollert and Irit Rogoff, 280 pages, Revolver Verlag, ISBN 3-86588-303-6.
External links
★
The Far Games A list of games using theatrical improvisation to encourage collaboration and distributed leadership
★
Molecular Thinking Website for collaborative brainstorming with friends, colleagues and other Molecular Thinkers in an online community.
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