Collaboration (co+labor+ation) refers abstractly to all processes wherein people work together —applying both to the work of individuals as well as larger collectives and societies. As an intrinsic aspect of human society, the term is used in many varying contexts such as science, art, education, and business. Co-operation refers to the practice of people or greater entities working in common with commonly agreed-upon goals and possibly methods, instead of working separately in competition. ... Look up coordination in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This is an incomplete list of suffixes in English. ... Collective can also refer to the collective pitch flight control in helicopters A collective is a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective. ... Human relationships within an ethnically diverse society. ... Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... The Bath, a painting by Mary Cassatt (1891-1892). ... Wall Street, Manhattan is the location of the New York Stock Exchange and is often used as a symbol for the world of business. ...

In certain political contexts (such as a state of war) the term "collaboration" (ism) or "collaborator" may refer (pejoratively) to individuals who are claimed to have been working with an outside entity against their own societies. The United States detonated an atomic bomb over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. ... Collaborationism, as a pejorative term, can describe the treason of cooperating with enemy forces occupying ones country. ... Look up pejorative in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Research into the properties of and process of collaboration has intensified with the advent of the Internet, collaborative editing, and computer mediated communication (CMC). As software designers, facilitators and theorists from diverse fields of study strive to create more useful and effective collaborative environments and methods, more light is shone on this ubiquitous and taken for granted practice, and the nature of collaboration is coming under more intensive study. Collaborative editing is the practice of groups producing works together through individual contributions. ... A facilitator is someone who skillfully helps a group achieve its objectives without personally taking any side of the argument. ... The word theory has a number of distinct meanings in different fields of knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. ...

Questions

More research into the nature of collaboration is needed to answer such questions as:

• How does collaboration differ from cooperation? (dictionary definitions are generally more or less equivalent)
• What qualifies as a collaboration? (is Wikipedia a collaboration in the same way that a work of art is when two artists collaborate face-to-face? and for that matter, does a family, city, nation or species qualify? Is the vivid representation of collaborative activity on the internet inducing changes in the very definition of art and authorship? Just as the printing press, photography and the telegraph once inspired the Futurists, Cubists and Surrealists, we are beginning to see the emergence of new kinds of collective creative practice such as Wigglism, Submodernism, etc.)
• What are the defining principles or elements of this process? (understanding these might help to draw conclusions on the previous questions)

Currently there exists no unifying general theory of collaboration. Co-operation refers to the practice of people or greater entities working in common with commonly agreed-upon goals and possibly methods, instead of working separately in competition. ... // General theories By explaining more phenomenon, with increased economy, a general theory provides more scientific power. ...

Etymology

Dating from 1871, collaboration is a back-formation from collaborator (1802), from the French collaborateur, ultimately from the Latin collaboratus, past participle of collaborare ("work with"), itself derived from com- ("with") and labore ("to work"). Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

Nuances

"Collaborate" implies "to work together on a project". When individuals work together as in an academic setting, "collaborate" includes the nuance "to be jointly accredited" for the work completed. When individuals and organizations work together, or organizations with other organizations, nuances include "usually but not necessarily willingly" and "with another organization with which one is not normally connected"..

Barriers To Collaboration

One opinion is that whilst collaboration is natural in some societies, and is generally natural in pre-existing teams, collaboration is unnatural in new groups and western society. Some of the perceived barriers to collaboration are:

• "stranger danger"; which can be expressed as a reluctance to share with others unknown to you
• "needle in a haystack"; people believe that others may have already solved your problem but how do you find them
• "hoarding"; where people do not want to share knowledge because they see hoarding as a source of power
• "Not Invented Here"; the avoidance of previously performed research or knowledge that was not originally developed within the group/institution.

Whilst much of the discussion around the topic of collaboration refers to the use of IT, perhaps more research is required on how to provide an effective social process that will help overcome the barriers! Not Invented Here (NIH) is a pejorative term used to describe a persistent corporate or institutional culture that either intentionally or unintentionally avoids using previously performed research or knowledge because the research and developed knowledge was not originally executed in-house. ...

Differentiating coordination, cooperation, collaboration & teamwork

The differences between these terms can be illustrated by considering these criteria:

Preconditions for success ("must-haves")

• Coordination: Shared objectives; Need for more than one person to be involved; Understanding of who needs to do what by when

• Cooperation: Shared objectives; Need for more than one person to be involved; Mutual trust and respect; Acknowledgment of mutual benefit of working together

• Collaboration: Shared objectives; Sense of urgency and commitment; Dynamic process; Sense of belonging; Open communication; Mutual trust and respect; Complementary, diverse skills and knowledge; Intellectual agility

Enablers (additional "nice to haves")

• Coordination: Appropriate tools (see below); Problem resolution mechanism

• Cooperation: Frequent consultation and knowledge-sharing between participants; Clear role definitions; Appropriate tools (see below)

• Collaboration: Right mix of people; Collaboration skills and practice collaborating; Good facilitator(s); Collaborative 'Four Practices' mindset and other appropriate tools (see below)

It is debatable if sanctions are necessary to secure productive collaboration and motivate free-riders to give inputs. "behavioral economics", see Fehr,Rockenbach; Detrimental Effect of sanctions on human altruism (download). The findings of the research employing game theory are that voluntary compliance is most important. Sanctions should not be outspoken and applied frequently but fair sanctions should be in place in order to support altruism with the players. Gächter and Thöni conclude in their paper Social learning and voluntary cooperation among like-minded people, Dec. 2004 (download) that provenience i.e. similar set of values is an enabler of collaboration. Nobel Prize in Economics winner Daniel Kahneman, was an important figure in the development of behavioral finance and economics and continues to write extensively in the field. ...

Purpose of using this approach

• Coordination: Avoid gaps & overlap in individuals' assigned work

• Cooperation: Obtain mutual benefit by sharing or partitioning work

• Collaboration: Achieve collective results that the participants would be incapable of accomplishing working alone

Desired outcome

• Coordination: Efficiently-achieved results meeting objectives

• Cooperation: Same as for Coordination, plus savings in time and cost

• Collaboration: Same as for Cooperation, plus innovative, extraordinary, breakthrough results, and collective 'we did that!' accomplishment

Optimal application

• Coordination: Harmonizing tasks, roles and schedules in simple environments and systems

• Cooperation: Solving problems in complicated environments and systems

• Collaboration: Enabling the emergence of understanding and realization of shared visions in complex environments and systems

Examples

• Coordination: Project to implement off-the-shelf IT application; Traffic flow regulation

• Cooperation: Marriage; Operating a local community-owned utility or grain elevator; Coping with an epidemic or catastrophe

• Collaboration: Brainstorming to discover a dramatically better way to do something; Jazz or theatrical improvisation; Co-creation

Appropriate tools

• Coordination: Project management tools with schedules, roles, critical path (CPM), PERT and GANTT charts; "who will do what by when" action lists

• Cooperation: Systems thinking; Analytical tools (root cause analysis etc.)

• Collaboration: Appreciative inquiry; Open Space meeting protocols; Four Practices; Conversations; Stories

Degree of interdependence in designing the effort's work-products

(and need for physical co-location of participants)

• Coordination: Minimal

• Cooperation: Considerable

• Collaboration: Substantial

Degree of individual latitude in carrying out the agreed-upon design

• Coordination: Minimal

• Cooperation: Considerable

• Collaboration: Substantial

One way to think of differentiating definitions

• Coordination: The organization of efforts of different parties to reach a common goal. High-stakes issues are not often involved, and parties need not carry a relationship beyond the accomplishment of the task at hand. The goal is static.

• Cooperation: A means to an end that involves gains and losses on the part of each participant. This can sometimes foster a competitive environment, and parties need not carry a relationship beyond the accomplishment of the task at hand. The goal is static.

• Collaboration: All parties work together and build consensus to reach a decision or create a product, the result of which benefits all parties. Competition is a nearly-insurmountable roadblock to collaboration, and the relationship among parties must continue beyond the accomplishment of the task in order to assure its viability. The goal is dynamic.

Where do teams, partnerships, think-tanks, open-source and joint ventures fit in this schema? The general definition of a team is an interdependent group, which suggests that collaborative groups are teams, coordinated groups are not, and cooperative groups may or may not be. Partnerships and joint ventures are both primarily cooperative undertakings, whose objectives evolve over time. Open-source developments can run the gamut among all three types of undertaking. So theoretically can think-tanks, though in reality much think-tank work is solitary and not really collaborative. Even the work of scientists on major international projects is substantially individual, with a lot more coordination and cooperation than true collaboration.

Wartime collaboration

Main article: Collaborationism Collaborationism, as a pejorative term, can describe the treason of cooperating with enemy forces occupying ones country. ...

As a pejorative term, the word "collaboration' can describe the treason of cooperating with enemy forces occupying one's country. As such it implies criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, including complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions, pillage, and economic exploitation as well as participation in a puppet government. For other uses, see Treason (disambiguation). ... A puppet state is a state whose government, though notionally of the same culture as the governed people - owes its existence (or other major debt) to being installed, supported or controlled by a more powerful entity, typically a foreign power. ...

The use of "collaboration" to mean "traitorous cooperation with the enemy," dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Regime in France, as well as the French civilians who sympathised with Nazi Germany's doctrine and voluntary troops (LVF) who fought against the Fighting France and later De Gaulle's French Force. Since then, the words collaboration and collaborateur have this very pejorative meaning in French (the shortened form collabo only has this pejorative and insulting meaning). Vichy France (French: now called Régime de Vichy or Vichy; called itself at the time État Français, or French State) was the French state of 1940-1944 which was a puppet government under Nazi influence, as opposed to the Free French Forces, based first in London and later... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... France under German occupation 1940-44 Presidential flag of Vichy France For other uses of Vichy, see Vichy (disambiguation). ... The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters who decided to go on fighting against Germany after the Fall of France and German occupation and to fight against Vichy France in World War II. General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French Cabinet... Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (  listen?) (November 22, 1890 – November 9, 1970), in France commonly referred to as le général de Gaulle, was a French military leader and statesman. ... The Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres in French) were French fighters who decided to go on fighting against Germany after the Fall of France and German occupation and to fight against Vichy France in World War II. General Charles de Gaulle was a member of the French Cabinet...

During World War II, those accused of collaboration with Axis Powers included: This article is becoming very long. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

• Wang Jingwei and his government (China)
• Vidkun Quisling (Norway)
• The Ustaše (Croatia)
• The government of Vichy France
• The successive governments of Tsolakoglou, Konstantinos Logothetopoulos and Ioannis Rallis in Greece
• Léopold III of Belgium (found innocent)
• Anton Mussert (Netherlands)
• Milan Nedić (Serbia)
• Jozef Tiso (Slovakia)
• Pierre Laval (France)
• Maurice Papon (France)
• Andrei Vlasov (USSR)
• Reza Pahlavi (Iran)
• P. G. Wodehouse (only informally accused)
• SS units recruited in occupied countries

See also Non-German cooperation with Nazis during World War II. Wang Jingwei * Courtesy name: Jixin (季新) * Alternate name: Zhaoming (兆銘). Wang Jingwei (Traditional Chinese: 汪精衛; Simplified Chinese: 汪精卫; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Wang Ching-wei) (May 4, 1883 – November 10, 1944), was a Chinese politician. ... Vidkun Quisling Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (July 18, 1887 – October 24, 1945) was a Norwegian fascist politician and officer. ... The Ustaše (often spelled Ustashe in English; singular Ustaša or Ustasha) was a Croatian right-wing organisation put in charge of the Independent State of Croatia by the Axis Powers in 1941. ... France under German occupation 1940-44 Presidential flag of Vichy France For other uses of Vichy, see Vichy (disambiguation). ... Ioannis Rallis (1878-1946) was the third Nazi collaborator prime minister of Greece, from 7 April 1943 to 12 October 1944, succeeding Konstantinos Logothetopoulos in the Nazi-held puppet government in Athens. ... Léopold III, Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel (November 3, 1901 – September 25, 1983) reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of his Heir Apparent, his son Baudouin. ... Anton Mussert Anton Adriaan Mussert (May 11, 1894-May 7, 1946) was a successful civil engineer who worked for the Dutch government. ... Milan Nedić Serbian Cyrillic Милан Недић (September 2, 1878 – 1946) was a Serbian soldier and politician who was a major collaborator during World War II. Nedić was born in Grocka, Serbia. ... Motto: none Anthem: Bože pravde (English: God of Justice) Capital Belgrade Largest city Belgrade Official language(s) Serbian1 Government Republic  - President Boris Tadić  - Prime Minister Vojislav KoÅ¡tunica Formation and independence    - Formation of Serbia 814   - Formation of the Serbian Empire 1345   - Independence from the Ottoman Empire July 13, 1878... Jozef Tiso Monsignor Jozef Tiso (October 13, 1887–April 18, 1947) was a Roman Catholic priest who became a deputy of the Czechoslovak parliament, a member of the Czechoslovak government, and finally the President of Independent Slovak Republic from 1939-1945. ... Pierre Laval, prime minister of Vichy France Pierre Laval (June 28, 1883 – October 15, 1945) was a French politician and four times Prime Minister of France, the final time being under the Vichy government. ... Maurice Papon (born September 3, 1910) was an official of the French Vichy government, who collaborated with Nazi Germany in World War II. After the war ended, he hid his role in the Vichy government and went on to have a successful career in politics until the emergence of details... General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (Russian: Андрей Андреевич Власов; alternative transliterations of his names appear as Andrei Andreievich and as Vlassov or (in German) Wlassow) (Lomakrno September 1, 1900 _ Moscow August 2... Reza Shah Pahlavi Reza Shah Pahlavi (Persian: رضا پهلوی) (b. ... P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse KBE (October 15, 1881 – February 14, 1975) (pronounced WOOD-house) was an English comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success for more than seventy years. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

Commercial / Scientific Collaboration

Even if the term collaboration has a lot of negative meaning and especially in France is not very usual (see Crozier, M. The Bureaucratic Phenomenon, Chicago 1964) there is a neutral to positive root for the term. There are various variants of multi client and/or multi contractor work. Open collaboration with market near products needs tight non disclosure agreements excluding background or previously known information from the protected intellectual property rights.(see also an example Collaborative Research and Development Agreement). In law, particularly in common law jurisdictions, intellectual property is a form of legal entitlement which allows its holder to control the use of certain intangible ideas and expressions. ...

• The first step for collaboration is that the partners get known to each other- this might be facilitated by research directories like Network for European medium and large transport research facilities.
• The second step is the compatibility of the aims of the organisations at least in the segment the project is located.
• The personal preconditions comprise the ability to communicate (also with regards to the technical terms) and the willingness to share ideas and develop them further together in a possibly previously unknown direction.

The term collaboration is also used for electronic work benches for example referred to as collaboratory by Mathcad (see also Internet Groupware for Scientific Collaboration Collaboratory, as defined by William Wulf in 1989, is a “center without walls, in which the nation’s researchers can perform their research without regard to physical location, interacting with colleagues, accessing instrumentation, sharing data and computational resources, [and] accessing information in digital libraries” (Wulf, 1989, as cited in Cogburn...

Musical Collaboration

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.

See also

• Collaborative software
• Consensus
• Puppet government
• Resistance movements
• Unorganisation

Skip Ellis defined groupware as computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment. It is also known as Collaborative software. ... Consensus has two common meanings. ... A puppet state is a state whose government, though notionally of the same culture as the governed people - owes its existence (or other major debt) to being installed, supported or controlled by a more powerful entity, typically a foreign power. ... A resistance movement is a group dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country. ... Unorganisation is an approach to organisational structure that consciously removes or avoids layers of management and bureaucracy, eschews job titles, and instead attempts to operate with the minimum of formal structure so as to become as flexible and efficient as possible. ...

References

• "collaborate." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster, 2002. http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com (13 Aug. 2005).

1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is a common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, deriving its name from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ...

External links

Look up collaboration in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• MetaCollab.net - help develop the free collaborative encyclopedia on collaboration.
• State Collaboration Collaboration of Vichy France with Nazi Germany.
• Collaborative On-Line Learning and Research
• Free Cooperation - Conference and resource about the art of online collaboration.
• Wikipaint.org - Collaborative online drawing
• Collaborative Drawing - Collaborate on Drawings in real-time with Internet users around the world.
• Wiki That! A blog about using wiki for collaboration - case studies, scenarios, advice, and resources for the non-technical user. Not affiliated with any specific wiki technology.
• Wikipedia's Collaboration of the week
• Platform focusing on collaboration amongst research facilities in European transport research more...
• Ten Steps Toward More Effective Collaboration - article in IT Managers Journal.