U.S. General Services Administration

From Stovepipes to Wind-chimes: Networking among Intergovernmental Communities of Practice and Project Teams

Susan Turnbull, GSA, Senior Program Advisor, Intergovernmental Solutions Division, Office of Citizen Services and Communications, Co-

chair, Emerging Technology Subcommittee and Co-chair, Social Economic and Workforce Implications of IT and IT Development,

Subcommittee on Networking and IT R&D

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From Stovepipes to Wind-chimes

• Expedition Workshops and Networking Among Intergovernmental CoPs using Distributed Collaboration Space

– Expedition Workshops began March, 2001

– GSA's Intergovernmental Solutions Division

– Architecture and Infrastructure and Best Practices Committees of the Federal CIO Council.

– National Coordination Office of the Subcommittee on Networking and Information Technology R & D (NITRD) and Social, Economic and Workforce Implications of IT and IT Workforce Development (SEW) Coordinating Group, NITRD

– http://www.gsa.gov/collaborate

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Expedition Workshop Purpose: Transcend Insularity

• Organize around common purpose, larger than any institution, to appreciate potentials and realities

• Improve quality of dialogue and collaborative prototyping at intergovernmental crossroads

• Participants, representing many forms of expertise, return to their settings with a larger perspective of the “whole”

– De Tocqueville “Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions form associations. …In democratic countries the science of association is the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends on the progress it has made.”

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Sample Expedition Workshops 2001 - 2002

• Introduction to Online Communities and New Online Conferencing Places

• How can Intergovernmental CoPs Foster Breakthrough Capabilities that Matter Most to the Public?

• How can On-line Communities Help us Advance Citizen-Centric Government and Multi-stakeholder Collaborative Partnerships?

• Multi-channel Delivery of Health Information: How Can We Improve the Flow of Health Information by Structuring it in Two-way, Interactive, XML/based channels (web, phone, and audio ebooks)

• An Innovation Diffusion Commons: How Can Innovators Use Digital Production Technologies to Accelerate Learning Exchange?

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Convener’s web log as workshop archive

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Sample Workshops 2002 2003

• People-Centric Computing: What Happens When Individuals Can Work Across Institutional Boundaries to Address Societal Challenges?

• Multi-lateral Organizing for Public Health Informatics and Preparedness: How do CoPs form the Connected Relationships Needed to Amplify Distributed Intelligence and Sharing in High-Stakes Settings?

• Multiple Taxonomies: How Can Citizens, Business, and Public Servants Traverse the Repositories and Workings of Government?

• Achieving Excellence in Public Space: Architecting Forms with Meaning that Stand the Test of Time: How can Collaborative Discovery and Engagement Tools Broaden How Societies Share and Preserve Meaning Over Time?

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2002 - Convener used traditional groupware, site license app

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2004 Workshops: Networking Among CoPs: Practice “Build to Share”

• Create conducive conditions for “Breakthrough” Innovations

– To be Informed (not Overwhelmed) by the Combined Complexity of our Multiple Forms of Expertise

– Authoritative Communities of Interest/ Practice around Common Business Lines

– Agile Framework for Building Intergovernmental Services (i.e. Federal Enterprise Architecture)

– Emergence of Open Standards, Semantic Technology

• “In design, we either hobble or support people’s natural ability to express forms of expertise.” Prof. David D. Woods

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In design we either hobble or support people’s natural ability to express forms of expertise…Self-organizing for Information Sharing in the first hours after the Tsunami – blog, wiki, flickr – 150 global volunteers

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VASA – 1628

In design we either hobble or support people’s natural ability to express forms of expertise.

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2004 - Communities began using Collaborative Work Environment (CWE, with wiki)

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CWE Augments People’s Natural Ability for Quality Dialogue and Sharing in a New Form: Distributed Collaboration

Fluid• Augments flow of

purposeful conversations• Sharing is paramount• Context advances

understanding• Supports quality of

dialogue, openness and transparency needed to build trust

• Supports CoP planning and development of events and documents

• Uses only everyday tools: phone and browser

• Open or closed communities

• Community sets the pace

Solid• Past contributions and

conversations always available

• Content never lost, wiki changes visible/ accountable by name

• High confidence level in 24/7 availability

• Hosted on high performance infrastructure

• Platform independent• Any file format in shared

repository• fine-grained access –

“virtual pointer on infinite whiteboard“

• Community in control

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Now try this – develop Federal Data Reference Model in 180 daysusing Distributed Collaboration

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2005 – Closed community, CIO representatives, more than 300 documents, eight teams

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DRM Public Forum – Open Community

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Five Expedition Workshops and Public Forums on DRM – 585 people

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From Stovepipes to Wind-Chimes

• Value:"Frontier Outpost" to open up quality conversations,

augmented by “light-weight” tools, to leverage collaborative capacity of united, but diverse sectors of society, seeking to discover, frame, and act on national potentials.

• Results: Multiplicative Returns – 58 Expedition workshops, 60-80 participants per workshop– 14 Communities of Practice, >1500 participants– Data Reference Model WG: 30 agencies

represented, 125 participants, DRM v2.0 issued by OMB in Dec. 2005

• Alignment: Networking among Communities of Practice and Project Teams

– Planning upcoming workshops together– Building common understanding of fundamental concepts

needed for communities representing diverse forms of expertise, to work together to leverage toward improved public service delivery at lower cost.