Re: Can IBIS be useful for individual/asynchronous collaboration? (was Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology)

From: albert.m.selvin@verizon.com
Date: Fri Nov 09 2001 - 03:25:47 PST

  • Next message: Simon Buckingham Shum: "Re: Can IBIS be useful for individual/asynchronous collaboration? (was Re: [unrev-II] Visual stimuli & IBIS methodology)"

    Peter Jones also wrote:

    "Secondly the move from unstructured to structured information in real-time
    would be fine if it weren't so hard to tell the difference between the two
    in the QuestMap GUI. The idea is that by the facilitator has finished it
    should all be formally structured. I think that misses great opportunities
    in the use of GUI technology to actually facilitate the move in concrete
    visual terms (Dang! I have to get those GUI ideas typed up soon!)""

    This is another good point, and it is true that it can take a practiced eye
    to tell the difference. A few comments though on our experiences here:

    - the more structured and formal the particular activity is, the more
    'regular' (not a jumble of nodes and links) it will appear, even to the
    unpracticed eye. Maps employing well-formed templates, for example (many
    examples in the various papers on the Compendium Institute website), look a
    lot more regular and structured than free-ranging discussions (they are
    also a lot easier to read)

    - chunking clusters of nodes and links appropriately in separate maps
    (rather than loading individual maps up with giant trees) makes a huge
    difference in readibility and apparent structure. This is also why I don't
    like the word "discussion" to characterize what can be done in a
    Compendium/QM/Mifflin context. A good Compendium practitioner/facilitator
    knows how to move between free-ranging and structured modes (there are a
    dozen mechanisms for so doing), and even identifying chunks that can be
    profitably moved (or copied/transcluded) to 'smaller', more focused
    containers, is a form of structuring

    - it isn't necessarily the case that there is a linear process that ends up
    in "all" being formally structured. One of the first lessons we learned
    from Jeff Conklin & co. was that you can leave 'messy' maps in their
    original and authentic state, copy those nodes that seem of special
    interest to new maps (thus preserving through a transclusion their presence
    in both old and new maps), and start afresh, in a more structured/focused
    way, in the new context. Sometimes it's good to leave a mess as a mess; it
    can always be archeologically mined for insights later (see below point
    about Mifflin's treatment of transcluded nodes *)

    - representational morphing, which I've discussed in previous posts, can
    also help create and display structure where it wasn't apparent before. We
    have built many particular morphing schemes that look for particular
    patterns of nodes, links, and metadata in and amongst otherwise messy maps,
    pull out those patterns are re-represent them in another, more easily
    'read' form.

    Al

    =====================================

    * QuestMap provided the ability to right-click on a node and see a list of
    what views that node was contained in (i.e. transcluded in). This was a
    powerful, but unfortunately limited, feature. Mifflin extends that in
    several ways:

    - this information can be displayed for many nodes at once

    - the data about what nodes are in what views is available for further
    computational purposes

    - the data also includes what the selected nodes are linked to in each view

    BTW, of all the commercial tools (besides QuestMap) that I've looked at,
    the only one that does similar things (although in different ways for
    mostly different purposes) is Intraspect. I'd be very interested to know of
    other tools that support these kinds of capabilities.

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