Facilitating Hypertext-Augmented Collaborative Modeling

Hypertext-Augmented Collaborative Modeling (HACM) 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 will explore the practice of this art form, focusing on the core skills and distinctions required for such sessions to be successful.

We invite 3 to 5 page position papers from fellow practitioners who meet the following criteria:

1. You are a practitioner: you've actually done some version of HACM with groups;
2. Hypertext was really involved (not just lists or tables or pentagons);
3. The sessions were about analysis, design, planning, or problem solving; (presentation, narrative, and brainstorming/categorizing being important but less interactive, and therefor less demanding, types of meetings).

In the workshop we will, using the position papers as background, discuss such issues 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?

Deadline

The deadline for submitting position papers is April 15. Notification of acceptance will be by May 1. Please submit papers to Jeff Conklin jeff@cognexus.org

Workshop theme and goals

The theme of the workshop is the sharing of lessons, practices, and distinctions that make for the most effective facilitation using hypertext-augmented collaborative modeling techniques.

Intended audience

Facilitators, consultants, researchers, managers ... anyone with a practice of using hypertext technology in group facilitation.

We would like to have 6 to 10 participants, in the interest of high quality discussion and lots of participation. Participants will be selected on the basis of the strength of their background as practitioners, with secondary preference for those with theoretical insights.

Outcomes of the workshop

The primary desired outcome of the workshop will be to extend and enhance the community of researchers and practitioners working with HACM, including establishing forums for further research and discussion.

Relevance to the Hypertext field

Hypertext and collaborative technologies have always had a strong and appealing overlap, but years of experience have demonstrated that many who might benefit from a collaborative hypertext approach simply do not have the skills to apply them to their complex and pressing problems. The workshop explores a new approach to this conundrum: experienced facilitators who have mastered both the hypertext technologies and collaboration and facilitation practices.

Description of activities planned

Brief presentation of key ideas from position papers; open discussion (facilitated/mapped in hypertext, of course); demonstrations of tools and techniques.

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.

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