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The MindShare approach to collaborative projects
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Integrated solution for project documentation and collaboration
Efficient project collaboration involving shared documents are major
issues for many information and data rich industries. Many projects
evolve over a considerable period, often years, with many different
people working on them. These projects encompass actions driven by
data and information, and continual update and review of analyses
and conclusions over time.
Throughout the workflow process, team members are confronted with
questions about the history of the project, past decisions and actions,
how and why decisions were made, and the outcome and consequences of
those decisions.
Centralised, integrated, project documentation is essential. Without
reliable information key decisions might be made with incomplete
input, sometimes
with expensive or catastrophic results.
Included in the scope for any project, should be the questions
about the need for integrated project documentation, quality control
tools and a common system for sharing information, data and expertise.
These questions include:
How do I communicate?
How do I share information?
How can I ensure that the information I have is up-to-date?
How can I preserve knowledge for other projects and groups?
How can management track best practices to ensure consistent
results?
How do new members of the team get up to speed?
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A real-time document-centric, project collaboration tool
Badley Technology has created MindShare, and its predecessor OpenJournal,
to address these questions within a project environment. Throughout
product development we have worked closely alongside highly qualified
professionals working in high pressure, information-rich industries,
to ensure that our products meet the demands of rapid capture, dissemination
and development of information and data.
MindShare provides a digital environment where people and organisations
collaborate. Key elements of this environment are:
Secure web-based workspaces: A private and secure cross-platform
workspace to work with other people to
create content, organise, update, share,
co-ordinate, view and publish information. MindShare uses web
pages that are both browsable and editable to form the basic
building block of the system. All
MindShare workspaces have a familiar
interface with "drag-and-drop" and common editors
to create and edit text, images, documents and files, and to
produce, organise and publish documents as web pages. But unlike
ordinary web pages
MindShare
pages and their content are live and editable.
Workspaces are freely configurable using drag-and-drop to add
new content and documents, and to reorganise structure.
Many-to-many real-time collaboration: A real-time environment
where project members can work together
productively.
Changes to any information within a workspace is updated immediately
ensuring that project information and data is never out-of-date.
The technology also includes
novel publishing and information sharing
methods together with
change notifications by email or SMS.
A comprehensive suite of tools: MindShare includes a full set of editing
tools to generate and view different types of information. Tools for word
processing,
image
capture and editing, spreadsheets,
tables, audio recording, website import, uploading files from other applications
and controlling page layout are integral features of MindShare. Additional tools
can be added to extend the system for specific requirements or to integrate
with other applications. Templates can be built ensuring best practices across
projects.
Publishing and sharing: Communication and sharing is at the core
of collaboration. MindShare is unique in the way in which it provides a
secure environment where
content is automatically published on-the-fly as browsable and editable
pages to standalone and web browser clients. Many users can simultaneously
access
and edit content, even different items on the same page. It is also possible
to share the same information across multiple pages and documents.
Security: One of the fundamental areas of concern, especially
where access to project workspaces may include external partners
or agencies. MindShare includes an easy to use security system
allowing pages (and even
items on pages) to be locked or denied to users. Project members
can also be delegated certain privileges removing the reliance
on an overall project administrator if desired.
Knowledge base: MindShare can be the digital file cabinet
for projects' unstructured data, such as presentations, e-mails,
desktop files and reports. Shared access
to a single copy of a document reduces duplication and increases efficiency.
Acting as the central
repository for information on current and past projects, organisational learning
is encouraged. Employees' knowledge is easily and readily accessible anywhere,
anytime on any computing platform.
Flexible project environment: All projects and organisations are not
the same. MindShare gives project teams the flexibility to rapidly define and
build their own project workspaces, or to use pre-defined templates.
Collaboration is not just about software
MindShare creates an ideal virtual environment for project teams to collaborate.
But, what makes individuals want to participate in its collaborative
environment and what benefits
does it confer on organisations?
A natural and
flexible environment for collaborative projects. The concept
of workspace and knowledge base are
closely interconnected. For users MindShare becomes
a common space for working together and as a common resource
from which to learn and develop best practices. When people collaborate
in this environment, their work is captured and organised in
specific
contexts such as R&D, product design, financial analysis, education,
interactions with clients, or ad hoc activities. MindShare captures and displays
the results of this collaboration - the information and communications -
with contextual setting including metadata recording who created it, when,
and
its relationship to other information. The result is a knowledge base containing
both history and workflows. Participants, by simple getting on with their
own work, are contributing to the collaborative knowledge base. This natural
and
unobtrusive way of working allows MindShare to seamlessly integrate with existing
work patterns and practices, fostering user uptake.
Many-to-many real-time capability is an essential ingredient
to successful collaboration. MindShare allows large world-wide virtual teams
to be created in an instant. At this scale of collaboration,
participants need technology to support the communication, relationship building,
and coordination tools. In high-pressure environments circulating information
by email for group consensus is time consuming and inefficient. It is not
possible to depend solely on point-to-point
communications,
such as
phone
or
email.
Using
MindShare information and documents are always up-to-date, to the extent that
users in different continents can work collectively on different parts of the
same document page and see updates occur in real-time. Your project teams will
never
have
out-of-date information to work with. There is also the important issue of
how key point-to-point communications are captured and stored in context. Users
also need to know that it is safe
to put information in a shared workspace, trusting the access controls to ensure
that only people with the correct privileges will interact with your information.
MindShare technology and tools encourages easy and unobtrusive
working practices. MindShare is simple to use providing a clear incentive
to work as part of a virtual team within a live shared environment. The convenience
of being able to browse
directly
the system's information and content
rather than having to navigate folders and file systems, and to use MindShare's
portfolio of tools to create, capture
and organise information provides a further incentive. It is a quicker and
more efficient way of working than common file-sharing collaboration systems.
Build ongoing relationships. The
system also confers benefits on participating organisations - the level
of relationship management with clients and partners far
exceeds over the longer
term what can be done with point-to-point communications. Everyone collaborating,
subject to security privileges, can see the history of the many-to-many
relationships and the browse the compiled information and knowledge.
This level of access
if simply not possible through traditional web sites or conventional asynchronous
communications. In knowledge-based businesses human relationships drive
innovation and cement the long-term value inherent in collaborative
relationships.
Build corporate knowledge. As the composition of virtual teams
change with staff turnover and transfers within organisations,
it is imperative that a knowledge base exists and is up-to-date
for new members to learn and provide continuity.
Simple tools encourage use. The success of any collaboration
system is determined by the people who use it - they must embrace any
new technology and want to use
it effectively.
Tools that
are hard to install, learn and maintain will not meet these objectives.
MindShare is simple to install, maintain, learn and use.
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