Collaboration, literally, consists of working together with one or more other people.

Although the word collaboration is widely used in many varying contexts such as education, science, art and business, very little research has been carried out to determine the properties of this process. With the relatively recent advent of computer mediated communication (CMC), the nature of collaboration is coming under more intensive scrutiny. As software designers, facilitators and theorists from many diverse fields strive to create more useful and effective collaborative environments and methods, more light is shown on this ubiquitous and taken for granted practice. However, what light is being cast is still fairly refracted into the diverse fields in which the research is being carried out. Perhaps more collaboration into the nature of collaboration will be required to answer such questions as: A facilitator is someone who skillfully helps a group reach a consensus without personally taking any side of the argument. ...

• 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 artist collaborate face-to-face? and for that matter, does a family, city, nation or species qualify?)
• What are the defining principals 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. ...

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"). Jump to: navigation, search Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

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 percieved 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"; self explanatory

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.

Wartime collaboration

As a pejorative term, the word "collaboration' can describe the treason of cooperating with enemy forces occupying one's country. In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to ones nation. ...

The use of "collaboration" to mean "traitorous cooperation with the enemy," dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Regime in France, and other French people who helped Nazi Germany. Since then, the words collaboration and collaborateur possibly have this very pejorative meaning in French (the shortened form collabo only has this pejorative 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 in Algiers. ... 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. ...

During World War II, those accused of collaboration with Axis Powers included: Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

• Wang Jingwei and his government (China)
• Vidkun Quisling (Norway)
• The Ustaše (Croatia)
• The government of Vichy France
• Léopold III of Belgium (found innocent)
• Anton Mussert (Netherlands)
• Milan Nedić (Serbia)
• Jozef Tiso (Slovakia)
• Pierre Laval (France)
• Andrei Vlasov (USSR)
• P. G. Wodehouse (only informally accused)
• companies like Philips and Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF) in the Netherlands continued their business with the Germans as usual, though the Phillips company for one tried to be as unproductive as they could get away with!

Jump to: navigation, search Wang Jingwei * Courtesy name: Jixin (季新) * Alternate name: Zhaoming (兆銘). Wang Jingwei (Traditional: 汪精衛; Simplified: 汪精卫; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Wang Ching-wei) (1883 – November 10, 1944), was a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang and is most noted for breaking with Chiang Kai-Shek and forming a Japanese... 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. ... Jump to: navigation, search Presidential flag of Vichy France Vichy France, or the Vichy regime (in French, now called: Régime de Vichy or Vichy; at the time, called itself: État Français, or French State) was the de facto French government of 1940-1944 during the Nazi Germany occupation... 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. ... -1... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... 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 Slovakia during World War II when it was a Nazi puppet state. ... Jump to: navigation, search Pierre Laval, prime minister of Vichy France Pierre Laval (June 28, 1883 – October 15, 1945) was a French politician and thrice Prime Minister of France, the final time being under the Vichy government. ... 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, 1946) was a Soviet Army General who later worked for the Germans during World War II. Early career... Jump to: navigation, search Called English literatures performing flea, P. G. Wodehouse, pictured in 1904, became famous for his complex plots, ingenious wordplay, and prolific output. ... Jump to: navigation, search Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.), usually known as Philips, (Euronext: PHIA, NYSE: PHG) is one of the largest electronics companies in the world. ... DAF is a Dutch automobile company, with its main offices in Eindhoven. ...

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 aggreements 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

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)

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

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.

Flash Collaboration

A gathering of Flash artists lead by the collab "host", the 'flashers' work together and produce 1 finished product, a good example is the time trials Jump to: navigation, search Macromedia Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the Macromedia Flash Player, written and distributed by Macromedia (to be acquired by Adobe Systems), that utilizes vector and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of video and...

See also

• Collaborative software
• Consensus
• Puppet government
• Resistance movements

Jump to: navigation, search Collaborative software, also known as groupware, is application software that integrates work on a single project by several concurrent users at separated workstations (see also Computer supported cooperative work). ... Jump to: navigation, search 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. ...

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

• MetaCollab.net - help develop the free collaborative encycolopedia on collaboration.
• State Collaboration Collaboration of Vichy France with Nazi Germany.
• Collaborative On-Line Learning and Research
• Wikipedia's Collaboration of the week