ThinkLets: achieving predictable, repeatable patterns of group interaction with group support systems (GSS)

Briggs, Robert O.; Vreede, Gert Jan de; Nunamaker, Jay F.; Tobey, David H.

doi:10.1109/hicss.2001.926238

Cited by 97 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…de Vreede and several graduate students to develop a design pattern language called 'ThinkLets,' a set of named, scripted collaboration techniques that caused predictable effects on group dynamics. Proof-of-concept ThinkLets turned out to be useful building blocks for designing collaborative work practices, and useful training tools for transferring a work practices to others [9,12,69]. ThinkLets also offered an explanation for conflicting results in the GSS literature: different experimenters used the same technology, but different techniques, and so obtained different results [62].…”

Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

Nunamaker

Briggs

Derrick

et al. 2015

Journal of Management Information Systems

127

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From our desk chairs it may be tempting to work up an idea, build a quick prototype, test it in a lab, and say, "Our work here is done; the rest is merely details." More scholarly knowledge awaits discovery, however, by researchers who shepherd an information systems (IS) solution through the last research mile, that is, through successful transition to the workplace. Going the last research mile means using scientific knowledge and methods to address important unsolved classes of problems for real people with real stakes in the outcomes. The last research mile proceeds in three stages: proof-of-concept research to demonstrate the functional feasibility of a solution; proof-of-value research to investigate whether a solution can create value across a variety of conditions; and proof-of-use research to address complex issues of operational feasibility. The last research mile ends only when practitioners routinely use a solution in the field. We argue that going the last research mile negates the assumption that one must trade off rigor and relevance, showing it to be it a false dilemma. Systems researchers who take their solutions through the last research mile may ultimately have the greatest impact on science and society. We demonstrate the last research mile with cases from our own work and the work of others spanning more than forty years. As a professor of information systems at San Diego State University, Robert O. Briggs researches the cognitive foundations of collaboration and uses his findings to design new collaborative work practices and technologies. He is cofounder of the collaboration engineering field and co-inventor of the ThinkLets design pattern language for collaborative work processes. He has made exploratory, theoretical, experimental, and technological contributions to the areas of team productivity, technology-supported learning, ideation, creativity, consensus, satisfaction, willingness to change, and technology transition. He has designed collaboration systems and collaborative workspaces for industry, academia, government, and the military. He co-chairs the Collaboration Systems and Technology track for the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. He lectures worldwide on collaboration theory and practice, and on the logic of scientific inquiry. He has published more than two hundred scholarly works collaboration systems and technology, addressing issues team productivity, technology-supported learning, creativity, satisfaction, and technology transition. He earned his doctorate Management Information Systems at the University of Arizona in 1994. Air Force officer. He has extensive experience working with the Department of Defense. As a contractor and academic, he has been awarded contracts and grants totaling $39.85 Million over the last 12 years (principle investigator awards total $16.89 Million). Doug has published 41 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings. Douglas C Derrick Gerhard SchwabeGerhard Schwabe is a full professor of at the Universit...

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Section: The Last Research Mile In Collaboration Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Last Research Mile: Achieving Both Rigor and Relevance in Information Systems Research

Nunamaker

Briggs

Derrick

et al. 2015

Journal of Management Information Systems

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This technique has been known as 'one minute madness' (Briggs and Vreede 2001). It is used to verify if participants understood the quality criterion used.…”

Section: Constraint Re-emphasismentioning

confidence: 99%

Modifiers for Quality Assurance in Group Facilitation

2011

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A key task of a professional facilitator is to assure the quality of the knowledge products created through collaborative effort. To manage the quality of the knowledge a group generates, facilitators attend to, judge, and question the quality of the contributions a group makes, the decisions it makes and the commitments its members make toward achieving the group's goals. When facilitators or group members detect deficiencies in ideas, decisions, agreements, or artifacts, facilitators may need to intervene to support the group in improving the quality of their output, without disrupting the flow of the group process. In this paper we present a framework for quality assessment and a toolbox with flexible interventions that can be added to a collaborative process on the fly as soon as quality deficiencies are detected. The toolbox is a set of conditional adjustment interventions that a facilitator can add to other facilitation techniques so as to guard the quality of the group's intellectual products. The toolbox can also be used as a starting point for designing intelligent agents that support the automatic detection of quality deficiencies.

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“…ThinkLets are collaborative activities which are reusable and transferable and cause specific known variations of the general patterns of collaboration, in which people work together toward the same goal [31] [32] [33]. ThinkLets can be seen as appropriate ways to package facilitating skills [30].…”

Section: Virtual Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%