Facilitating Hypertext-Augmented Collaborative Modelling (HypACoM) Report on ACM Hypertext 2002 Workshop: http://cognexus.org/ht02/ Jeff Conklin, Al Selvin, Simon Buckingham Shum Held as part of the annual ACM Hypertext Conference [http://www.cs.umd.edu/ht02/], University of Maryland, this workshop [http://cognexus.org/ht02/] was convened to bring together practitioners to share experiences, building on a previous workshop in 1999 on computer-supported collaborative argumentation1 Hypertext-Augmented Collaborative Modelling (or what we decided should be HypACoM for short!) combines: (i) a facilitator (ii) hypertext software projected on a shared display screen, and (iii) one or more conceptual/modeling frameworks The facilitator operates the software and works with the group to craft semi-formal models of the group’s subject matter and discussion about it The workshop explored the practice of this art form, focusing on the core skills and distinctions required for such sessions to be successful With a small but growing number of practitioners, the workshop was set-up to discuss specific practitioner challenges such as: What is behind the criticism "it's too hard"? Is this kind of facilitation more a talent, like being a jazz musician, or a learned skill, like automobile repair? What is the core orientation of this facilitation? What are the crucial distinctions? Skills? Abilities? What does it take to become masterful at it? The accepted position papers on these themes were as follows: • • • • • • • Chuck Palus (Center for Creative Leadership, USA): Reflections on Artful Practice Eugene Kim (Consultant, USA): Rearchitecting a Software Platform Mark Westcombe (Lancaster University, UK): Problem Structuring (long version) Simon Buckingham Shum (Open University, UK): Augmenting Design Deliberation with Compendium Al Selvin (Verizon, USA): Reflections on HACM Facilitation Jeff Conklin (CogNexus Institute, USA): Bridges to Fluency Kim Salins (Consultant, USA): Hypertext Shared Display as Collaborative Modeling In addition, there were three attendees with ‘observer’ status, John Nosek (Temple University, USA) and Steve Haynes (Penn State University, USA), who are doing ACM SIGWEB Newsletter, February, 2000, Vol 9, No Also at: http://kmi.open.ac.uk/sbs/csca/cscl99/ related research, but not close enough to directly address the practitioner issues at the heart of the workshop, and Michelle Bachler (Open University, UK), a developer/researcher just started working on the Compendium Mifflin hypertext tool as part of the CoAKTinG Project A fourth participant, Jack Park was unfortunately unable to attend Papers accepted for “Observer Participation”: • Jack Park: Thinking about IBIS in the Classroom • John T Nosek: Augmenting Sensemaking Conversations Over the course of an extremely stimulating two days, we wrestled with these issues, sharing a multitude of practical hands-on tips, and generating many metaphors to describe the process of acquiring, and applying, the skill of augmenting meetings with shared, hypertextual representations Most of the participants were using versions of the IBIS approach to collective sensemaking, pioneered by Horst Rittel, with the exception of Mark Westcombe, who gave a detailed presentation of the SODA modelling approach to cognitive mapping, and a demo of the Decision Explorer support tool Next steps discussed Day was devoted to trying to distill out some of the key issues, captured using Mifflin (using a hybrid of Dialog Mapping and Cognitive Mapping!) Rest of today? Output: Highlights, key learnings, distillation from the wkshp Plan a future gathering/workshop Where/when? Nottingham 2003 UK Sep ~3 Possible themes? Getting video material together/pictures Requirements Talking more about mastery Going through databases from practiotiner point of view Dissemination/selling What people have read and found useful Annotated bilbiography e.g How to Make Meetings Work Exploring the 'why hypertext' question Working with large groups Long-term coherence Light touch facilitation / when you're a participant Evaluation/metrics Bridging synch and asynch work Ensuring cumulative research Interoperability Using templates / dynamics of using template Granularity of capture Explore "Why are we here?" Opportunities for future collaboration? Brainstorm tips (e.g style) E.g how to start in minutes What to when stuck Next steps? Put a template database on the web Clusters of issues (final session) Clusters of answers in response to the question: What were the three most important things that you learnt here? shared display + framework can take you a long way - facilitation skills don't have to be amazing to get going effectively if shared display can a lot for you, what additional personal qualities are required? emotional cost of intervention Mark - this may not be assuaged by being willing not to know all You become the outsider when others are engaged - you have to break in again You may misjudge when a good moment to interject is a willingness to not know +/or be in control emotional cost of intervention Mark - this may not be assuaged by being willing not to know all You become the outsider when others are engaged - you have to break in again You may misjudge when a good moment to interject is a commitment to a group's process/truth entry level use (e.g secretaries)? (Mark works with a transcriber) (Jeff has worked with a scribe) the validator/chair/facilitator then verifies it secretaries could start with just one concept type managers don't want to be told to scribing eg getting a buzz from negotiating conflict/peacemaker/reconciliation Sufi - The (9th type is the peacemaker) The Enneagram (cognexus web link to Lela Foundation) discovery that there are such people as facilitators how to impart the craft? (mentors/apprenticeship ) video examples a 'guild' for this stuff workshops training certification shared libraries/experiences etc mastery, esp the idea of patterns + trajectories I want to learn these the need for a conceptual framework for mastery we started to explore the tie that binds us - the 'philosophy' underpinning this (related to cumulative improvement) A passion for coherence and engagement the idea that you can teach facilitation skills the challenge of validating the shared display gracefully - and ways to it granularity of capture what are the axes of the HypACoM space? esp useful for pedagogical purposes focus on process/dialogue/equivocality - structure/model/precision wicked - tame expressiveness/complexity of the conceptual framework (axes?) constraint from export tools? degree of memory shared presence - working - meeting/trans-map (session) - trans-meeting re-use vs throw-away anticipated audience (present/absent) anticipated audience (known/unknown) anticipated audience (present/absent) new methodologies like SODA and Visual Explorer the importance of the expressiveness of the visual interface/SD - it's compelling venn diagram - facilitator/framework/hypertext re-use for what? unclear what the vision for re-use is transclusions as a way to surface patterns (esp if used to assign attributes) (e.g Al should demo some of his use of transclusions) Concluding thoughts There is of course no single take-home message from this event New links were forged, and old ones strengthened A future workshop may take place at Hypertext 2003 in Nottingham, UK, and smaller gatherings before then are likely Arguably (of course!) a strong metaphor and theme was that of mastering a complex skill, whether a musical instrument, a martial art, or a tool As one grows in experience, one looks to attain a new level of performance that beginners aspire to but cannot experience until they have mastered the rudiments However, an intruiging issue is the extent to which a beginner can reap immediate benefits from HypACoM in meetings simply by virtue of the ‘cognitive coupling’ that occurs when a group works by ‘thinking and talking through’ a structured display of some sort Workshop Organisers Dr Jeffrey Conklin Director, CogNexus Institute Jeff Conklin is the designer of the gIBIS and QuestMap graphical hypertext argumentation tools and the creator of the Dialog Mapping technique His CogNexus Institute offers Dialog Mapping training, facilitation, and consulting services He is the author of several hypertext and collaboration technology papers, including a 1987 survey of hypertext which served as a standard reference on the subject for years Dr Conklin is also on the faculty of George Mason University Albert M Selvin Senior Manager, Information Technology Group, Verizon Communications Al Selvin co-developed the Compendium methodology and led its application on more than 75 projects in commercial and non-profit settings At Verizon, he leads eBusiness, software development and business process redesign teams He has published papers in the fields of computer-supported collaborative work, knowledge management, hypertext, organizational memory, and collaborative sensemaking Simon Buckingham Shum Senior Lecturer in Knowledge Media at the Open University, UK Simon Buckingham Shum has been studying, and applying, graphical hypertext argumentation approaches since 1990, with specific interests in IBIS, design rationale, learning and knowledge management For several years, he co-led tutorials at the UK HCI conference on QOC, an IBIS-related design rationale approach He brings a background in cognitive psychology, ergonomics and human-computer interaction ... has published papers in the fields of computer-supported collaborative work, knowledge management, hypertext, organizational memory, and collaborative sensemaking Simon Buckingham Shum Senior Lecturer... Horst Rittel, with the exception of Mark Westcombe, who gave a detailed presentation of the SODA modelling approach to cognitive mapping, and a demo of the Decision Explorer support tool Next steps