This is the first installment of a periodic series of posts highlighting sources of information and insight about collaborative public policy and its many related fields. Cross Collaborate looks at collaborative public policy as an emerging field that draws on numerous sources, including change management, negotiation, collaborative networks, deliberative democracy, mediation, consensus building and other related areas of practice. Each of these sources of influence has provided specific concepts and tools that collaborative leaders and practitioners need to understand in order to select the appropriate method for each situation they encounter.

Each of the websites mentioned here offers a gateway to resources of many types to help deepen understanding of collaborative principles and techniques. These have been especially useful to me, but please add your suggestions so that we can continue to build a comprehensive list.

I’ve adapted these summary explanations from each site and highlighted especially useful resources.

CRInfo: CRInfo “is a free, online clearinghouse, indexing more than 25,000 peace- and conflict resolution-related Web pages, books, articles, audiovisual materials, organizational profiles, events, and current news articles. In addition to its easy-to-use but powerful search engine, CRInfo (along with its partner project, Beyond Intractability) provides easy browsing of information on 600 peace- and conflict resolution-related topics. Also available are recommended readings from our panel of editors on 425 topics, along with 225 ‘executive summary’-type overview essays on key topics and approximately 500 summaries of important books and articles.” These two sites comprise a single comprehensive resource. There are guides introducing conflict resolution to different groups, including adversaries, practitioners and “bystanders,” and another set of user guides discussing the application of conflict resolution methods to many different policy fields. Especially interesting is a large collection of audio-recorded interviews with practitioners and experts from around the world.

Change Management Toolbook: The Change Management Toolbook is a collection of more than 120 tools, methods and strategies which you can apply during different stages of personal, team and organizational development, in training, facilitation and consulting. It is divided into three principle sections: Self, Team and Larger System. Registration is required. Free registration is required. Many materials are free, but others require payment. This is one of the most comprehensive collections of practical tools useful not only in the change management field but also in consensus building and other forms of group process.

The IAF Methods Database: This site is intended for professional facilitators and is dedicated to online and face-to-face methods for creating, leading and following up group meetings. Three levels of techniques are used in the IAF Methods Database; Applications such as Scenario Planning, Methods or Models such as Mind Mapping and Interventions for ensuring efficient meetings. Each of the levels is explained and examples are given. The searchable database contains 455 techniques. The database is located at a different site from that of the International Association of Facilitators, free registration is required for access to the materials. Recent changes to the site have greatly improved access and browsing of explanations for each of the methods.

Open Space World: OpenSpaceWorld is a portal site, functioning as a global community resource. It is managed by a volunteer webmaster, supported over the last ten years or so by a number of helpers and contributors, and linked to several other Open Space community gathering points and resource sites. “Membership,” online and around the world, is open, informal, self-selected — and active. Resources available include authoritative introductions to Open Space methodology, including a sector by Harrison Owen, who developed the method. A couple of earlier posts here provide a very brief introduction to Open Space and to OpenSpace Online, a website replicating the process in online meetings.

US Environmental Protection Agency Center for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPRC): CPRC provides alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services to the entire Agency. The CPRC “develops and implements Agency ADR policy, administers Agency-wide ADR programs, coordinates case management and evaluation, and provides support to program-specific ADR activities. Building on existing ADR efforts at EPA, the CPRC assists other Agency offices in developing effective ways to anticipate, prevent, and resolve disputes, and makes neutral third parties more readily available for those purposes.” The site has an excellent collection of documents on federal government policies and use of conflict resolution methods. The EPA site on Public Involvement has an even more extensive collection of resources, including EPA policy documents and Presidential Executive Orders on public involvement. The site also makes available an enormous collection of tools, guidance documents and handbooks prepared for implementation in several EPA programs. Similar materials from other federal agencies and a searchable database make this a comprehensive information resource.

World Directory of ADR Blogs: “Bringing together the world of blogs covering mediation, arbitration, negotiation, conflict resolution, and people-focused innovations in justice and law.” Assembled by mediator and lawyer Diane Levin, the directory contains information and links to blogs on 15 subject areas in the conflict resolution field, and includes sites from 30 countries. This is the most comprehensive listing of blogs by ADR experts from around the world.

Mediate.com: Mediate.com has been one of the most important sites in this field for more than ten years. It includes a comprehensive directory of mediators in all fields of practice, and an assortment of resources prepared for this site. There is free access to many resources, but practitioners, in particular, can readily sign up for a free Basic Membership. This includes access to over 5,000 Mediate.com articles & resources, a basic directory listing for practitioners for home state, county and area code, and the Mediate.com Weekly Newsletter. Especially helpful is a huge collection of online articles by practitioners and experts, contributed over the past decade, that cover every aspect of mediation, consensus building and negotiation. A weekly selection of posts from practitioner blogs is another unique feature. (Disclosure: this blog is now included.) Paid membership also provides access to a series of video interviews with senior practitioners as well as books and DVD’s.

Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation – Clearinghouse: “The Program on Negotiation (PON) is a university consortium dedicated to developing the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution. As a community of scholars and practitioners, PON serves a unique role in the world negotiation community. Founded in 1983 as a special research project at Harvard Law School, PON includes faculty, students, and staff from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University.” PON is especially renowned for its intensive training courses and for publication of the Negotiation Journal. Of greatest interest in this context is its Clearinghouse, a collection of well-tested training materials and simulations. Many are free, but most require payment of modest fees, on a per role player/instructor basis. The simulations are often scorable and are known for their thoroughness in bringing out the fine points of negotiation and mediation skill building.

Policy Consensus Initiative (PCI)/ National Policy Consensus Center( NPCC) : “PCI builds and supports networks that provide states with leadership and capacity to achieve more collaborative governance. NPCC develops collaborative governance systems that enable leaders to achieve better solutions to public issues. We produce and distribute a range of tools and resources, including publications and videos, that promote best practices and provide guidance on the use of collaborative governance.” I have featured several PCI videos on this site because they are the best produced and most concise explanation of public policy consensus building that I can find on the web. In addition, PCI has produced carefully reviewed guidebooks for conveners of consensus processes, focusing on the needs of state legislatures and other officials who have play this role. These are some of the best guides I know to introduce any interested person to the field.

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) – E-PARCC Maxwell School, Syracuse University: Adapted from the website explanation: Collaboration is an essential tool in an increasingly interconnected world. PARCC examines how collaborative governance has altered political and social relationships across national and international landscapes. It seeks to identify the best practices of collaborative governance. – Two of its leading researchers, Lisa Bingham and Rosemary O’Leary, have produced authoritative guides to the use of collaborative methods and networks in public agencies. Another resource, located at the E-PARCC website, is a unique set of teaching resources. This collection includes case studies, simulations, course syllabi and other resources relating to collaborative public management, public agency networks, collaborative governance and collaborative problem solving. Many of these materials are produced as part of a competition judged by an international panel of experts. The prize-winning simulations, syllabi and other teaching materials are freely accessible online. Like materials from PON, these are useful for general learning purposes outside instructional settings, especially for the case studies and scenarios of conflict resolution.

US Institute of Peace – Resources and Tools: “USIP provides the analysis, training and tools that prevent and end conflicts, promotes stability and professionalizes the field of peacebuilding. USIP Online Library has over 12,000 items dealing with conflicts, diplomacy, negotiation, and mediation. Resources also include: interviews with experts on recent global conflict developments; a practitioner’s toolkit with tools for the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of conflict; and digital collections of peace agreements, oral histories and other documentation.”

International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) – Public Participation Knowledge Network: IAP2 is the major professional association in this field. Its Knowledge Network is a growing resource that includes a forum for feedback and discussion. “Developed by the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) and Portland State University’s Center for Public Participation, this interactive network is a resource for both academics and practitioners who are interested in sharing knowledge and research on public participation. The network consists of: a searchable database of books, articles and websites related to public participation; an online discussion forum for sharing research-related knowledge and experience.” The database provides abstracts and detailed references for over 300 research articles and 45 case studies. Especially useful for anyone wanting to learn more about public participation practices globally are summaries of almost 50 websites, with listings of the types of resources available at each site.

As anyone who regularly uses the internet knows, we’re in the midst of an explosion of new web applications for collaboration and conferencing. These platforms use text chat, video, voice, screen-sharing and social media technologies for online, real-time meetings, but only the more costly services combine them all for use in large, global conferences. These services may well enhance public policy collaboration as well as citizen engagement, but many of the tools are so new, and their number so enormous, that it is very hard at this stage to make choices among them.

The Real Time Virtual Collaboration (RTVC) is trying to solve that problem. In early May, the group held its first experimental event to test the feasibility of combining multiple technologies in a smoothly integrated conference experience.

Organized by Holger Nauheimer and other members of the Change Management Toolbook, the RTVC is “a social experiment designed to learn, practice and explore how we can use online tools to collaborate in real-time for positive change with organizations and communities around the globe.” The intention of the group is to learn the lessons of this first event and then introduce a refined concept in future conferences.

Open Space Technology principles provided the basic structure and approach for the RTVC, and more than 50 change management practitioners from around the world took part. Prior to the conference, an international team spent two months in preparation and coordinated online hosting. The Skype chat tool was selected as the basic means of participation for the introductory and plenary segments. If participants could not obtain a Skype ID, they could also follow key elements of the conference through Twitter, which was used to record notes and comments. Thus, brief text messaging provided the framework for discussion.

This group chose the web meeting applications, structured the conference and developed the overall schedule, which was made available online in Google Docs. Individual members took responsibility for managing and in some cases hosting those web tools to be used during break-out sessions. They also coordinated registration and distribution of orientation information to the participants.

During a 48 hour period prior to the conference, participants had access to a common chat room where they identified topics to cover in the smaller sessions. Those who took responsibility for managing each break-out group also chose the particular “space” or combination of web applications that would be used for that session. The other participants not only selected a group for its subject but also for the technology they were most comfortable with or interested in trying.

Here are the applications used in each of the break-out sessions.

1. Collaborative Intelligence in the Workplace: Yuuguu is a screen-sharing application that enables participants to view a host’s desktop screen presentation. It connects with Skype and uses instant messaging as the communication tool. Mindmeister allows collaboration on mind-mapping, and a draft map of the discussion was developed during this session for immediate sharing with the group.

2. Communication Tools for Managers: Skype Voice Over Internet (VOIP) and chat. Skype also includes a video feature, but at present it is limited to just two users.

3. Interdependence of Collaboration & Technology: Teamspeak is a VOIP system run from its own server. It eliminates transmission flaws like those sometimes encountered in Skype, and can accommodate thousands of users. Online mindmapping was used in conjunction with this system.

4. Open Money: Twitter and Skype.

5. Global Skills: Etherpad is a real time collaborative document creation/editing application that incorporates teleconferencing.

6. Twitter via Tiny Chat. Tiny Chat provides chat rooms with video and permits access to Twitter even if a participant has no Twitter account.

7. Community Owned Communications: Skype chat.

8. New Change Management Approach: DimDim is a web conferencing platform that includes chat, video and audio along with screen sharing for live presentations with whiteboards and web pages. Meetings can also be recorded so that proceedings can be distributed and the event replayed for anyone who could not attend the real time event.

9. Collective Action (Shirky’s Concept): Twitter and Tiny Chat.

The Twitter messages were organized centrally in another application, TweetGrid. Prior to the conference, Time and Date was used for scheduling and coordinating participation from locations around the world. This application has a comprehensive scheduling suite, including a World Clock, that facilitates identification of conference times in every time zone.

The RTVC organizers received a lot of favorable feedback about content, the interaction of participants and the ease of use of the software, though a few found the tools hard to get used to. The organizers are reviewing the experience and refining the conference concept for the next event.

If you are interested in following the experiment, you can find groups dedicated to the RTVC on Facebook and Linked In. You can also search on Twitter for #rtvc to read messages produced during the conference and afterward. The Facebook group has made available an excellent slide presentation summarizing the event.

This is an important project that will help those in the public policy – or any other – field more quickly identify some of the best applications for real time meetings. Given the level of business investment in developing new software of this type, it’s just a matter of time before more integrated and comprehensive tools are introduced.

We’ll continue to follow these developments here and provide more detailed discussion of how to use such applications in public agency contexts.

Please let me know about other web tools you have experience with and also your assessment of their value.

Related posts:

1. Web Resources for Online Meetings – 1
2. Open Space-Online

How is it possible to accomplish an Open Space Technology (OST) meeting on the web, working only with text and limited visual aids through a desktop browser? That is the aim of Open Space-Online, and by many accounts it does the task effectively. Given the structure of an OST meeting, it would seem difficult to translate this system to an online experience. How is it done – what are the appropriate contexts for using it – and what are its limitations?

Gabriela Ender, the founder of this system, said in an *interview* that the concept came to her by a flash of inspiration in 1999. As an organizational change consultant, she wanted a system that would be easy to use, with virtually no learning curve required for participation, and that could reduce costs to groups sponsoring face-to-face meetings. Until then, there was no widely used online collaboration tool that could offer an effective real-time conference experience using OST.

How Does It Work?

The system Ender developed is text-based – a striking contrast to the multimedia emphasis of recent online collaborative software – and that feature helps to simplify entry for first-time users, eliminating the need for more than a few simple instructions. There is a built-in computerized facilitator, which functions only as a guide to introduce the process to participants and signal the different phases as they come up in the schedule. This device seems to work because the role of a live facilitator in a face-to-face OST meeting is similarly limited to just these functions. Because the system is text-based, it does not require a high-speed internet connection, an important consideration in assembling geographically dispersed participants, some of whom may lack access to the latest technology.

The Online Process

The flow of the online process parallels a live OST meeting. To illustrate the special characteristics of the online experience, I’ve summarized the main steps of the process and added paraphrased observations of one participant from a real OS-Online event. This was a conference that brought together a world-wide group of OST facilitators to discuss trends in use of the method and what they should do to enhance the field. Such a meeting is a common example of an application of OST – a gathering of professionals in one field or members of a large organization who want to discuss future directions of change and set priorities for action. Frauke Godat, a social change activist, blogged some of her impressions as she was participating. (She is referred to as “FG” below, and her actual comments are set in quotation marks.)

Registration
As participants are signing in, they can identify one another and send messages in order to get acquainted. This common space for open discussion is called the “Foyer.” Similarly a “Cafe” is available during small group sessions and a “Bistro” during breaks.

Frauke reported that in the Foyer, she met people from India, Australia, Europe, the US, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. Gabriela Ender and Harrison Owen both signed on.

Process Introduction In an opening “circle,” there is a brief explanation of the process principles by the automated facilitator (appearing on screen as a cartoon character named COMOSO).

Agenda Setting
FG: After the virtual facilitator introduced the principles of Open Space to the full group of 46 participants, they started identifying issues for the agenda. “I post the question: “How can we use OSonline to create a We Are What We Do community globally?” 14 different sessions were proposed, and each received a time-slot of 40 minutes.

Round 1 Small Group Sessions
FG wrote that during the first round of small group sessions, she realized she wasn’t feeling involved with any of the five discussion topics – though they were all important issues relating to OST. “Half through the first round, I realize it is not the questions that I don’t connect to but having too many people around that I don’t know and I don’t see.”

She moved around from one discussion to another, following the OST “law of two feet” – “If you find yourself in a situation where you aren’t learning or contributing, go somewhere else.”

Instead of staying with the sessions, she then went to the Cafe space and had a series of conversations with participants she found there. That made the first round very stimulating and helped her form new connections with other professionals.

Breaks
FG: During the break between the first and second sessions, she posted a question in the Bistro: that asked how others experienced the first round. Several answered that they had felt confused, as she had.

“… I think confusion that is caused by the chaos of an OS conference is a very important prerequisite to take responsibility and share your passion through posting and hosting your own question and thus create order around your personal needs.”

Rounds 2 and 3 Small Group Sessions
FG: Next round she focuses on a single question – “How can we use OSonline to create learning in virtual communities of practice?” This is one of her central concerns and attending the session devoted to that, rather than moving around, she becomes deeply engaged in the discussion.

In round 3 she hosts the session she initially proposed on how to create a global We Are What We Do community. “The speed of ideas, typing and questions reaches the limit … I really engage in the conversation … .”

Concluding Large Group Session
After the individual sessions are done, the group notes are consolidated, and the large group meets briefly to summarize commitments and future actions.
Also each participant can instantly download a file containing the final notes for every session.

FG: “I leave the conference after being 4 hours online, having had interesting and helpful conversations with total strangers from across the world who have become advisors and possibly mentors for me hosting a We Are What We Do OSonline in the near future.”

You can find Frauke Godat’s full post here.

Typical Applications

Most of the examples of the use of Open Space-Online fall into a few categories:

- Organizational planning

- Change management within large organizations with dispersed staff

- Planning and strategy meetings for groups of professionals

- Formation of new institutional networks across regions or globally

- Public consultation meetings to gather ideas

Online meetings like these are also typical of the face-to-face applications of Open Space Technology. In the next post in this series, I will explore the relevance of this method, both on- and offline, to consensus building processes, conflict resolution and new approaches to public deliberation.

If you have experience with Open Space-Online, I hope you can provide comments here that would give insight about details of using the online tools and the quality of the experience.

Related posts:

1. Real Time Virtual Collaboration
2. Collaborating on the Web

In the mid-90s I attended a conference that assembled about 50 members of the environmental conflict resolution field. Although mediators and researchers had been developing, testing and adapting the theories and methods of the practice for 20 years, it was still a young and emerging field, and there were constant debates about its best practices and its future. It was an expanding and exciting field absorbing new influences and meeting new challenges. We needed to refine our understanding of where it was headed.

The meeting was one of the most effective I had ever attended. The group was highly energized, and most left with renewed commitment and understanding. The method used to help us reach that point was Open Space Technology.

Open Space Technology, developed by Harrison Owen, is one of the many innovative methods of structuring large group meetings that came into use in the 1980s-90s. The ideas on which it is based go well beyond a technique to focus group decision-making.

They comprise a practical theory about how people can self-organize for action without centralized control of their efforts to address complicated problems. That’s a premise most leaders would probably not agree with since the absence of tight control over group action is often equated with chaos, inefficiency and an inability to make decisions.

Like other collaborative group processes, Open Space Technology cannot be used in all situations. Most institutional actions and programs are carried out through a system of hierarchical managerial control. This dominant paradigm has proven itself effective in countless organizations for implementation of straightforward programs and policies.

Open Space does not challenge this fundamental approach to managing routine activities. However, the normal systems of control are far less effective in addressing complex problems that involve highly diverse groups, ongoing or imminent conflict and issues that are not so clearly defined as to permit simple solutions. Above all, there is a need for immediate action to address the set of problems. The level of motivation, then, is quite high.

These are the situations in which Open Space Technology and other collaborative processes are especially effective. They create spaces for deliberation and decisions outside the typical institutional systems of control and require a different approach to group guidance. For Open Space, that guidance comes from the ability of groups to self-organize, shape their own agendas, provide their own leadership and reach decisions about commitments to action.

Such an approach is especially challenging to leadership accustomed to close control of meetings through selection of participants, choice of subject matter, preparation of agendas, use of facilitators to keep every session on track and definition of the type of desired outcome or product. Many will wonder how a meeting lacking these elements of tight structure could possibly accomplish anything.

The answer relates back to the type of situation that best suits the Open Space structure. It is one that’s already, to a degree, disruptive, resistant to the usual methods of management, and on the verge of breaking into open conflict.

Here’s a brief overview of how an Open Space meeting might unfold. The description is taken from The Power of Spirit and online writings by Harrison Owen, originator of this method.

• A large, diverse group of people, on the edge of conflict, gather to work on major issues regarding the future of their organization.
• The issues must demand immediate response, and there must be a high level of interest and committment by the group members to deal with those issues.
• A single facilitator greets the group, which is seated informally in circular fashion, and very briefly describes how the process works.
• Then group members compose the agenda by writing down the specific problems they want to address and posting these on a large wall space. Each person adds an issue she/he is strongly motivated to deal with and assumes the role of group leader. Each proposed session has a designated place and time, spread over the rest of that day and the next, or however long the gathering is scheduled to last.
• All members choose which groups they want to attend, often after negotiating over scheduling conflicts, and disperse to those designated rooms to meet and begin working on the posted issue. The groups can be as small or as large as interest dictates.
• An important principle is that each person actively contributes. If anyone is bored or dissatisfied, that person should move to a different group. Each session typically lasts for an hour or hour-and-a-half but should end as soon as the group is no longer making progress.
• Each group leader writes up conclusions and commitments to action. (Laptops can be available for this purpose.)
• At the conclusion of all sessions, there can be either a report-back process (this is often skipped as being too cumbersome and lengthy to focus the attention of the entire group) or a brief session in which the group leaders announce specific commitments for action.
• The final step is distribution of all the session write-ups in a simple binder to every person attending the event.

This rough overview leaves a lot of unanswered questions, but in a sense that is part of the reality of such a meeting. The group members have to take responsibility for making substantive progress and organizing themselves as necessary to get their work done. During the meeting that I attended, as I mentioned above, each participant needed and wanted to engage on the issues without delay and became energized by a structure that counted on their own originality and contributions. The lack of conventional structure was never a problem, and the outcome was a series of commitments that each person was capable of implementing. It was by no means the last word in addressing the issues, but it was a critical step that made further progress possible.

In the next post of this series, I’ll look at other assumptions underlying Open Space Technology – in particular, its reliance on a group’s spirit as the main driver of self-organization. In addition, I want to compare Clay Shirky’s ideas about the effect of the internet on the nature of organizations with the implications of Open Space.

In the meantime, it would be helpful to know if you have participated in an Open Space meeting and what your thoughts are about the experience.