Speak First, Then What? - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 155

issues of buried content. Since the structures
tend be imposed at high levels in the repository,
cross-functional work is effectively discouraged
or even stifled.

Out of fear that she might hurt the author's feelings,
she also exercises restraint in the online comment-
ing system herself. When she sees a document she
does not agree with, Mary actually goes and talks
to the poster herself in person. After the conversa-
tion, she feels stupid to still post the comment, as
everything has been said already.

The “Post Partum” Phenomenon

Joe has been posting diligently to the repository.
Every time he got a new report of a survey or a
focus group, the data went straight into the col-
laborative space. He is really proud “playing it
open”, as he calls it, with all the data out there.

Commenting is a huge exposure. Saying one's
opinion about somebody else's work is a daunting
act. Using an asynchronous medium like a web
site makes it even harder, since there is no way
to interact directly with the person to spare their
feelings or clarify points. Add the public nature
of comments, and you can understand the stress
and the amount of sheer courage it takes to add
anything other than “Well Done”.
Team culture plays a large role, affinity and
trust being rather high on the list of drivers of
success. Commenting can be a minefield, with
mutual retaliation potential. It can be exhausting
and distressing for a person with a Feeling Pref-
erence (on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator™).
Do not be surprised that comments have a large
no-mans-land between strangers (where the cost
of a “flame war” is low) and tight teams (where
players understand each other very well).

There is, however, a nagging feeling: nobody ever
talks to him about these posts. In fact, he never
touches them again himself, since all the relevant
information is right there at his fingertips on his
PC. All this effort seems to be rather a waste of
his time. However, he soldiers on, believing in the
power of sharing.

Another way a repository turns into a dump is
users that diligently post absolutely everything, but
never touching it again. The authors make their
decisions offline. The repository is not relevant
for work. It is just a way to leave a paper trail of
finished work products.
Users quickly notice this kind of behavior. In
order to get into the decision making loop, they
take the discussion offline, effectively destroying
the initial intention of the tool. The amount of
posted documents is impressive, and very hard to
critique. It is, however, counter-productive.

The “Measure What I Do” Malaise

Mel is noticing a lack of participation in the vault
as well. He wants to help the team to maximize
the utility of the tool, and starts with the facts:
the usage statistics. The “Ignore the Ramblers” Idea

Now that Mary started to use the vault in earnest,
she starts to see comments on her documents.
Some of them are useful in her mind, others not
or just beside the point. Rather than to waste her
time on the last two types, she concentrates her
responses on the ones she sees to be important.
All other comments she leaves dangling.

He quickly finds that Joe is the top poster, with
almost 40% of all new documents coming from
him. He also notices that Bazzar is hardly posting
at all. The system does not allow him to see the
commenting activities, but a quick, random scan
shows him that there are very few comments. The
team seems to agree on most issues posted.