Collaboration Skeleton
From English 194 Wiki Site
Team Members:
* Alex Barkett * Viktoriya Filippova * Dan Hawley * Ashley Kaye * Tiffany Kimoto
Styles of Collaboration
To say that collaboration is found everywhere would not only be a gross understatement but also an oversimplification of what is otherwise a multi-faceted and versatile mode of human and non-human engagement for the purpose of generating and sustaining products, ideas, and services in any and all areas of life. Given the magnitude and the degree with which collaboration has become part of the norm, some general patterns, or styles of collaboration can be observed, regardless of the field or specific area of collaborative activity.
In terms of initial organizational patterns, collaboration can be both formal and informal, structured or casual. Both entail some kind of agreement or authorization, whether written, oral, or implied. According to its span or scale, collaboration can engage a minimum of two entities and a maximum of unlimited number of such entities, working in the same physical space or spanning the globe. Depending on the actual and chronological time in which collaboration takes place, one can distinguish between immediate, or synchronous style of collaboration and asynchronous, in which each part of performance is meted out by schedules or an interdependent chain structure.
The human element, though essential, is not the sole component of collaboration. (to be continued)
Victoriya Filippova 22:11, 24 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Collaboration in Business
There are several different forms of collaboration in the business world that extend to many of the other subjects discussed on this wiki (music, art, electronics).
- definitions of business collaboration
- business: (dictionary.com) A commercial enterprise or establishment
- collaboration: (dictionary.com) The act of working jointly
- types of business collaborations
- collaborations within one business
- collaborations between 2+ businesses
- famous business collaborations
- history of collaboration in business
- a business collaboration model
- interview with a person in the collaborative business world
- how collaborations are made to make the business grow or become a better workplace
- why collaborate?
Ashley Kaye 19:13, 29 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Collaboration in Music Composition
Music is a constantly evolving art form. Through different stages of popular music's evolution, we can see the paradigm for collaboration change. In the age of Gregorian chant and classical, orchestral, music, compositions were completed by one composer, and then passed on to one group of - usually local - musicians. It was not until years after the original work was published (sometimes not even until after the death of the composer) that other orchestras or ensembles were given access to the original scores. This is a relatively dictatorial mode of collaboration. Under this mode of composition, information is transmitted among those involved by means of musical notation. In the last twenty years, however, there has been a huge boom in digital recording software and hardware, as well as the innovation of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) technology.
These modern tools can open up an entire world of uncharted, collaborative power that is waiting on the fingertips of any computer savvy composer today. Using a MIDI editing environment, anyone can stream samples of pre-recorded music together and add their own original ideas. This allows the composer to draw up previously recorded tracks from a master recording and plug them into new tracks. Think of the concept as Wikipedia for music.
On the cusp of the inventive musical frontier, there are now untested prototypes of programs that attempt to allow users to collaboratively create a composition in real time, in different locations, over the internet. This is accomplished using direct internet connections between recording software/hardware bundles such as Logic and Pro Tools and adding web cams. The problem with these prototypes is bandwidth. The computerized signals that are recorded and distributed simultaneously as .wav files are too large to transmit in real time. These .wav files are, however, set to a timed delay which is precisely one measure behind actual time.
Some links that may provide more insight:
More on Music Collaboration Over the Internet
Dan Hawley 13:03, 28 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Society/Tribalism/Anthropology of Collaboration
Society is, in itself, an act of collaboration. People interact and communicate in order to live together in the most optimal way possible. However, there are endless elements to consider when analyzing the flow of a society: politics, demography, religion, economic and class structures, family, ethnic background, etc. In this sphere, I intend to partially investigate how societies collaborate on a macrocosmic scale, drawing references from sociologists like Karl Marx.
Yet I also want to explore more non-western and non-industrialized views of society and collaboration. I would like to research how smaller groups of people form relationships for survival tactics as well as from an emotional need. From this I want to explore the basics of group formation — under what conditions they are conceived, how people are chosen and why others are left out, and what key elements are necessary to keep groups working effectively and cohesively. I would like to compare possibly one or two different small tribes to a large-scale society, like a city/town in the USA and see what commonalities exist.
Another area of interest is collaboration as a strategy for social change. By this, I mean looking at how people collectively stand up for a common cause. In sociology, there are terms like “direct action” or “affinity groups” which are used to describe the methods of some grassroots social movements. Although this topic is already fairly widely-discussed, I may want to investigate it further.
Grassroots organizing
- incorporating the internet
Challenging the model of Functionalism
- individuals gathering in groups
- organization from below
Examining the roles of individuals
Examples
Future of social activism/ collaboration
col·lab·o·rate 1 : to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor 2 : to cooperate with or willingly assist an enemy of one's country and especially an occupying force 3 : to cooperate with an agency or instrumentality with which one is not immediately connected
Collaboration is the foundation of society; people interact, share ideas, and form relationships in order to better their lives and the lives of others. The very act of collaboration is so ingrained in our everyday lives that it often goes unnoticed; however, we depend on it. Perhaps it is overlooked because it has no standard form. Collaboration exists in public institutions, every workforce, office, farm, and school; it is found in small groups and large venues, intimate settings and family gatherings. Furthermore, a person's role changes in accordance to the nature of their specific collaborative effort. With the wide range of possibilities for collaboration to exist, this webpage is dedicated to explore and better understand its awesome capabilities and elusive complexion.
Tiffany Kimoto 01:09, 25 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Fashion Design/Marketing
This field of business has previously been regarded as a solitary, and extremely competitive, creative development. However, like most other art forums, fashion design is an incredibly interactive process; it requires taking a simple sketch and transforming it into its final product through many hours of skilled labor. Now today’s clothing market is becoming more innovative and more collaborative. With the public’s expanding attention on brands and labels, some big companies are choosing to pair-up with well-known designers in an effort to increase their sales as well as their status. This new style of design and marketing begs many questions, including: How does this affect the amount of resources being used in production? How does a designer’s input affect his/her personal reputation? Who owns the rights to the designs? Does the need for collaboration imply a change of values within the original business?
Links
Tiffany Kimoto 01:13, 25 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Literature and Electronic Literature
With the computer acting as a new medium for literary production, one that will presumably take over completely given enough time, we must analyze new practices of authorship that can take advantage of the broad new array of options for writers and artists. A major area of interest is whether/how the collaborative effort between programmers and writers (and possibly others as well, designers etc.) necessarily changes the finished product. Must brilliant works of literature be created by one artist with one distinct and complete vision, or can artists collaborate productively without a conflict of perspective?
Also, how are the expectations of modern readers changing? Are there simply too few literary geniuses to create engaging and revolutionary texts in the world today? Are intelligent and amibitous creative minds seeking out others to pool their unique skills and interests to accomodate the heightened expectations of a general intellectual public that is slowly disengaging from a sustained interest in creative literature? Are these questions (especially the last) answerable?
Does self-reflexivity in electronic hypertext narrow the writer/reader gap, identify its parameters, or merely acknowledge it as empty space?
A possible direction for research: Electronic writing
Alex Barkett 21:46, 24 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Group Psychology
I have participated in various "workshops" where groups of peers share their experiences and participate in specific activities to grow emotionally and psychologically. I am considering trying to organize my memories and interpretations of these events to come up with arguments for and against the efficacy of group therapy. This would be primarily a biased case study, supplemented by research on Freud, Gestalt psychotherapy and anything else I find helpful.
Alex Barkett 22:43, 24 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Internet Collaboration and Open software communities
The history of the Internet begins with the United States' desire to remain in the technological lead of the rest of the world. The process of the Internet's evolution began in the late 1950s and has rapidly increased over the last two decades. The Internet has become a place where information is usually cheap and readily available. The World Wide Web's vast archive of information is filled to the brim with the collaborations of countless people. People are able to voice opinions by connecting to the Internet and using the World Wide Web. The sharing of ideas and opinions through this relatively new medium has taken collaboration to a new level. Collaboration through the Internet can happen in real time (chat or instant message) or it can be done at each person's leisure by e-mailing, blogging and posting. -used [1] for history.
Networking sites on the Internet connect people from around the globe to share different aspects of their lives. Wikipedia's List of Social Networking Services
Other instances of collaboration that have arisen by evolution of Internet use are open-source software. According to Wikipedia.org, Open-Source software (or OSS) is computer software that is open for its code to be freely studied, changed and improved. [2]
- Networking Sites
- Facebook.com
- MySpace.com
- Friendster.com
- LiveJournal.com etc.
- Open source websites
- Wikipedia etc.
Ashley Kaye 17:20, 1 May 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
"Ghost" Collaboration
In this category, a type of collaboration can be explored in which one or more participants of a collaborative work does not exist, and is a result of an attempt to lend more credibility or authenticity to the end result. A historical example of such claims are Milton's Paradise Lost, and particularly his claim to co-authorship with the holy spirit. There are other examples of "ghost" collaboration (holy or otherwise). In Christianity, the Bible is said to be inspired by God and written by prophets, disciples, and the like, who are mere mouthpieces for the divine source. This type of collaboration can bear contested criticism; whether such collaboration can be deemed false or genuine largely depends on the person's belief in the divine intervention, and in the existence of God himself.
A more obvious collaborative falsehood can be seen in works of literature which in their nature contain a source, a person or an event, that never existed, and was made part of the work(s) to strengthen the authenticity of the writer and/or add popularity or acceptance. An example of such collaboration is the book Doubled Flowering: From the Notebooks of Araki Yasusada. In this book, purported notebooks of the Hiroshima poet Araki Yasusada, discovered by his son after the poet's death, were translated from Japanese. A well-established rumor exists that the Araki Yasusada did not exist and that the poems are a "hoax" perpetrated by the Japanese-American author Tosa Motokiyu or by his literary executor, the American poet Kent Johnson, the copyright holder of the book.
Victoriya Filippova 14:14, 27 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Government
In order to avoid dedicating my life to this topic, I will try to focus on one specific style of government, perhaps a single study of oligarchy and its effectiveness as a form of government compared with a dictatorship. Government and business seem to be the two fields in which collaborative efforts are most pervasive and influential. They are, in turn, also the broadest to analyze, but a narrow study of a certain aspect or effect of Marxist theory for instance, may yield valuable insight on the kind of collaborative decision making that drastically changes entire nations and alters the face of the world. Also, how to individual governments collaborate with those of other nations? I could focus on specific instances of inter-governmental collaboration, such as the Yalta Conference, or more grand, idealistic ventures such as the United Nations.
Alex Barkett 22:52, 24 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Collaboration in Art
One of the most common examples of collaboration in visual art history is the art studio model. How do artists work together? How do they compete? What kind of enviornment does an art studio produce and how is collaboration in the visual arts effective? Where do graphic design, web design and computer animation fit in on the digital plain?
Alex Barkett 17:15, 12 June 2006 (PDT)
Electronic Hardware
From the simplest collaborations of a clock/radio flashlight to more complex collaborations of combining the means of communications on a laptop with a modem or a wireless (or cellular) phone.
Ashley Kaye 13:23, 25 April 2006 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Movies
Film studio production models are the basis for one of the most popular and lucrative artistic industries. Movies are the product of a team of engineers, artists, actors, producers, etc. working together on one creative venture. An analysis of the extensive efforts behind the screen could yield useful insight into the art of collaboration.
Alex Barkett 17:15, 12 June 2006 (PDT)
