Implementation and use of an online collaborative workspace in a distributed global organization

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Implementation and use of an online collaborative
workspace in a distributed global organization
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Michael R. Braun Hamilton MLS Student, Emporia
State University mhamilton_at_mercycorps.org Digita
l Library Assistant, Mercy Corps

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Mercy Corps

• Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts,
  chronic poverty, and instability, activating
  untapped human potential to create lasting
  change. Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided 1.5
  billion in assistance to people in 106 nations.
  Supported by headquarters in North America and
  Europe, the agencys global programs employ 3,500
  staff worldwide and reach 16.4 million people in
  more than 35 countries.

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Worldwide Programs
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Virtual Collaboration at Mercy Corps

• Mercy Corps is a decentralized, field-driven
  organization. Virtual collaboration can help the
  organization by
  
• fostering the creation and interaction of
  dispersed teams.
  
• facilitating the aggregation and dissemination
  of information and innovations.
  
• building social capital and encouraging
  organization-wide community.

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Communities of Practice

• At the Mercy Corps 2006 Leadership Conference it
  was decided that Mercy Corps should establish a
  virtual Communities of Practice website to help
  develop, share, and collect best practices within
  the organization.

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• What are Communities of Practice?
• Communities of Practice are groups of people who
  share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion
  about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge or
  expertise in this area by interacting on an
  ongoing basis.
• Wegner, E., McDermott, R., Snyder, W. M.
  (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice.
  Boston Harvard Business School Press.
  
• By encouraging Communities of Practice an
  organization can
  
• Stimulate innovation.
• Share knowledge.
• Develop social capital.

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• Virtual Communities of Practice
• By creating a virtual space in which Communities
  of Practice can interact
  
• Interactions are visible and recorded. Knowledge
  and practice are preserved and made available to
  a wider audience.
  
• Communities of Practice can have distributed
  membership.

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Finding a Virtual Collaboration System

• The Mercy Corps Intranet Services group was
  tasked with creating and implementing the
  collaborative environment for these Communities
  of Practice.
• The group
• Performed a Collaborative Toolset Needs
  Assessment.
  
• Began investigating software options.

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• Clearspace
• The working group decided to move forward with
  Clearspace.
  
• Mercy Corps had worked with Jive, the software
  developer, before.
  
• It was free. Clearspace was a new product for
  Jive and they offered to let Mercy Corps
  participate as beta testers.
  
• It met (most) of our needs.

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About Clearspace

• Enterprise Collaboration Software. Brings Web
  2.0 tools to the workspace.
  
• Developed by Jive Software http//www.jivesoftwar
  e.com
  
• J2EE application built on open standards.
• Locally hosted.
• Accessed via web interface.

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Clearspace Features

• Spaces Content in Clearspace is arranged into
  hierarchical spaces. User permissions and most
  other settings are set by space.
  
• Mercy Corps Clearspace has spaces for Communities
  of Practice, Virtual Teams, and for Clearspace
  Help functions. Some spaces have additional
  subspaces. While most spaces are public, access
  to some is restricted to certain users.
• Spaces are managed by Space Administrators.

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• Content Types
• Discussions Discussions allow users to share
  information and ask questions.
  
• Blogs Users or space administrators can create
  blogs to share news on a project or subject.
  
• Online Documents Users can collaboratively
  create and edit documents through the web
  interface. Versions are retained and users can
  compare and view previous versions.
• Uploaded Files Files created in other
  applications can be uploaded and shared through
  Clearspace. Previous versions are retained when
  files are updated.

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• Moderation/Review Content can be set to require
  review or approval before publication.
  
• Users Each Clearspace user has a profile
  listing their contact information and areas of
  expertise. Users can be browsed and searched.
  
• Private Messages Users can send each other
  messages through the site.
  
• Connections Users are able to follow other
  users and track their activity.
  
• Projects and Groups Projects are a special type
  of space in with basic calendaring and task
  lists. Groups are user-created spaces for social
  interaction. (Groups are turned off at Mercy
  Corps.)

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• Tasks Users can define project or personal
  tasks. Tasks can be given due dates, and they can
  be assigned to others.
  
• Notifications Users can get notification of
  site activity they are interested in via email or
  RSS feeds.
  
• Email Integration Most site functions can be
  done via email.
  
• Announcements/Polls Announcements and polls can
  be added to any space.
  
• Customizable Homepages Users can customize the
  information they want on their homepage. Space
  Administrators can customize space pages.

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Launch, Adoption, and Growth

• Mercy Corps Clearspace was launched in May 2007
  with 160 registered users.
  
• Membership was allowed to spread organically.
  Accounts were created as they were requested.
  
• Some in-person trainings, but mostly virtual
  help documents, online (Flash) tutorials, etc.

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• Since launch Mercy Corps Clearspace has grown
  steadily to 955 users based in at least 32
  countries.
  
• Mercy Corps Clearspace has been accessed almost
  39,000 times from 89 different countries.
  
• Last month 32 of the traffic was from outside
  of the United States.
  
• Total Content
• 1190 online documents
• 2285 uploaded files
• 542 discussions (with 1590 total posts)
• 82 Blog Posts

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Usage

• Sharing experience, knowledge, lessons learned.
  Having technical discussions.
  
• Project organization and management.
  Dissemination of project or subject-specific news
  and information.
  
• Sharing and transferring data documents among
  and between offices.
  
• Collaborative document development.

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Challenges

• Information Policy/Integration with other tools
  What goes into Clearspace vs. other information
  sharing systems?
  
• Organizing Information How can we make it
  easier to find content?
  
• Too Many Spaces Hard to find things. (Too many
  information silos.)

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• Training/Best Practices How do we train new
  users? How do we train existing users on new
  features? How do we help users use the system in
  a more efficient manner?
• Bandwidth Issues How can we make the site as
  easy as possible to use in low-bandwidth
  environments?
  
• Information Literacy How can we make the tool
  as easy to use as possible for users with limited
  technical backgrounds?

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Best Practices

• Make sure Clearspace is a place for interaction,
  not simply a document repository.
  
• Encourage (responsible) tagging!
• Organize content by tags and tag groups use
  subspaces mainly for private spaces.
  
• Use online documents rather than uploading
  files.
  
• Teach people how to use notifications.
• Encourage people to flesh out profiles.

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• What Makes a Successful Community of Practice?
• Strong advocacy and leadership from the space
  administrator(s).
  
• Promotion and recruitment by the
  administrator(s). (Sending emails, making
  handouts, evangelizing!)
  
• Fresh content!
• Making sure questions get answered.
• Using discussions rather than just posting
  documents.
  
• Moving outside conversations to Clearspace.
• Reminding people about the site.

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You must be the change you wish to see in the
world. Mahatma Gandhi