Hierarchy

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is defined as, any system of persons or things in a graded order, or a series if successive terms of different rank. [1] Then how has hierarchy contributed to the collaboration project? And is it necessary for the hierarchy of persons or things?

At the beginning of the course we were given the task to split into groups of 5. My group only consisted of Simon, Marko, and Me. Once most groups formed their 5 person team, we were still left with 3 in our group. So Jezza decided to join us. Before we could continue we needed to elect a group supervisor. This process wasn’t too difficult as Simon who we all consider a natural leader would be a great candidate to hold us together to complete the tasks. Once we got organised each group had a tutor allocated, this tutor was to help us with general inquires to collaboration and to guide us with any problems we would encounter. Matt Day was appointed to our group and in a hierarchical sense he was group leader.

As follows is a hierarchical table that will illustrate the levels or grade within our group.


Hierarchy of things within our tasks are evident if you consider the Maslow approach to hierarchy. Maslow created a hierarchy of needs for the individual. He placed the needs in a hierarchy such that only after the needs of a layer are satisfied would an individual care about the needs in the next layer. [2] Taking Maslow’s approach to hierarchy and putting it in context to the model of our building in UT3 we have to address certain layer needed to be done first before the next layer. We have chosen to build the main building in 3ds Max, this is our starting point and our first layer. Then we can continue to add the other layers like the material required the textures that go with the material, sound elements internally and externally, this list goes on, with layers added and the levels of hierarchy change as well develop our skills and hone in on the required processes to accomplish the end model for our final presentation.

The large amounts of work needed to complete this project will need the efforts of each member of the group. To have a harmonious and professional project plan we would need to acknowledge the hierarchical values in collaboration. If this is lost our main focus on achieving our goals would be lost too. Having a level system between peers will allow smooth cooperation throughout the project. Assessing the hierarchical needs of each layer will benefit us learning, and recording the right information that will be valid to the tasks. Hierarchy is the stepping stone to planning a successful collaboration project.

Reference:

[1] The Macquarie Dictionary

[2] A Need Hierarchy for Teams, Anita Sarma and André van der Hoek, Oct, 2004

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2006/07/human_hierarchy.html

http://www.isss.org/hierarchy.htm

Maslow, A.H., Motivation and Personality. 3rd edition ed. 1987: HarperCollins Publishers. 293.

Intent

To relate the word, intent or intention to my task, the need to understand the meaning of intent is important. The Macquarie Dictionary describes it in 3 simple words Meaning, Plan, and Will.

Communicating my intention will mean I will need too;

• Describe the purpose of the task.
• Why the task needs to be done.
• What the end point of the task is.
• The time it takes to complete the task.

John F. Kennedy provides a good example. In his now famous ‘man on the moon’ speech;

“First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

This statement of intent is concrete [landing a man on the moon], active [landing, returning, achieving], simple, time bound [before this decade is out], and is in the form of a mini story [land the man and get him home safely]. [1]

My task is to showcase an important, architecturally designed building, that has not been physically built, and to build it in a 3D environment, then be able to explore The High Court of Australia, by Harry Seidler. The use of UT3 will allow the users to get a sense of scale and volume. The reason this task needs to be done is because of the course arch1392, the course allows the students be part of the growing industry which involved developing and modeling in a gaming environment. At the end of this course I would like to have the ability to create or recreate designs in a UT3, possess the ability to collaborate with others to reach the desired outcome. The time it will take is unknown, but there is a due date.

My intention are achievable in the time frame given, the course will teach me more than intended. This is not a detailed plan, but a point of direction of where I need to end up.

Reference:
[1] http://www.anecdote.com.au/archives/2007/07/communicating_i_1.html - By Shawn

Knowledge

The Macquarie dictionary defines knowledge as. (1) To perceive or understand as fact or truth, or apprehend with clearness and certainty. (2) To have fixed in the mind or memory. Then what is knowledge in context to collaboration?

In an article “collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?” by James Robertson. He writes “collaboration tools can work against knowledge sharing. While collaboration tools work extremely well for the staff using them, they can lead to hundreds (or thousands) of information ‘silos’, making it harder for other staff to find required information.” Can Knowledge be shared?

In our own team we have divided work amongst the group depending on their knowledge. Each person has the knowledge or ability to do their desired tasks, but to access that knowledge of someone else, how does he/she access that information? The fact is, you can never access the needed knowledge from the “knowledge” holder with asking them to teach you or another way to attain that knowledge is to learn it yourself.

As a group we have a task to build an unbuilt building in a game environment. Most of us didn’t know this was possible. The task involves us using the UT3 modelling engine. The members of the group have individual tasks, that either involve using the UT3 editor or not. But does the person not using UT3 lose out in terms of they will not get the chance to learn and to expand their knowledge? Or does the person learning UT3 lose out in terms that they will spend more time learning a new tool while the other person refines their knowledge through more experience?

Sharing knowledge is not an easy task as members of the group will become “information silo” that others will not be able to access at any given time.

Collaborated knowledge has become more and more important. For example, architectural firms have a design brief that involves more than what they can handle so if a firm’s expertise is master planning, but the brief includes a nursing home and a hospital, you would need the knowledge of others to complete the plan. Sharing knowledge is important in our group task and will be closely managed to make sure we don’t became “information silo’s”

Record

Records are information, data or documents which carry with them sufficient information about the context of their creation and their structural properties, and are embedded within the accountability framework of an organisation so as to ensure their integrity and authenticity for the period for which they are designated as accountable documents.[1]

Keeping records have become essential in any situation. By acknowledging that people keep records of their lives for example, photograph have been around for many years and have become a great tool for recording events. Keeping a record is important, and useful to the person that accesses these records whenever they like. But how do we know if record keeping will do its purpose, will it last the distance intended? And what are the best means of keeping a record in our collaborative tasks.

First we need to establish a documentary base which is reliable, trustworthy and which ensures that evidence of action is available for as long as it is needed [1]. A cost effective (free), reliable, and accessible by all members. Brainstorming and producing a list of alternate record keeping methods was evident that there are many ways to record information, which one of those is most useful to us as a group was an emailing system. Emails are not necessary a document management system, but have been a source of communication between members of the group. As our main source of interaction we decided email systems our medium to keep track and record the progress of the group tasks.

It’s safe to say that all members have access to an email system, and are able to use it without any training. The cost effectiveness of email system is some what free via www.hotmail.com. We are also confident that this system is going to last the duration of this subject and that we are not going to lose information over the next 8 to 10 weeks. Other forms of record keeping maybe conducted through a forum set up within our Wiki (www.arch1392group2.wiki.com). This is a great place to converse and collaborate in our group task. I have attached a screen shot of my emails, keeping track of all communication by sorting emails into one folder for easy access. And a screen shot of our forum for another source of communication that is keeping record of our posts.

Reference:
[1] Recordkeeping Systems - Publications http://www.recordkeeping.com.au/pub_docmgt3.html
12/04/2008 10:37 AM

Disciplines

Architectural disciplines are ever so growing; a building is designed by an architect and then it’s built…right? No not that easy, consider that an architect will need others to collaborate with the design for example an interior designer or structural engineer, and a builder will need trade specialists in specific parts of the building process for example a concreter, or a bricklayer.

With all these disciplines in an architectural sense, what are our disciplines in context to our project? And how do we all collaborate to complete our group task?

As the week went on we wrote out a list of jobs/tasks and added to it, until we found all the specific elements needed and covering the main aspects of the task. This list is made on the basis of what we know about the task and with certain disciplines unknown the following list will grow as we continue on in the weeks;

• Exterior modelling
• Interior modelling
• Internal texture mapping
• External texture mapping
• Surrounding landscape mapping
• Building/landscape research
• Video presentation
• Lighting
• Animation
• Image manipulation

We then established what our disciplines are and how we can contribute our training to the list of tasks at hand. I was interested in internal modelling as I am trained in 3Ds Max and enjoy using the program. But it turns out that someone else is also trained and may be more advanced in this area. So I decided to changed to building landscape and all the needed research involved in this field. The task can involve using a CAD program to outlay the terrain, but I will also look into UT3 editor. My other task is to edit all the lighting in the model; this will mean learning lighting in the UT3 editor.

With all disciplines delegated amongst the group we then need to establish a work flow of the task. A simple diagram can illustrate what processes I think we need to follow.
For the following work flow diagram to work, the tasks will need to be managed. In a large architectural project a separate manager is used to manage the work set out, but in our case Simon our group leader will take on this role. All correspondence regarding our project will be done via email, or a forum/message board can also be set up.

Collaborative Document Editing

Last group meeting we were given five talking points for our blogs

A.Synchronous Messaging
B. Collaborative Document Editing
C. Shared Repositories
D. Social Networks
E. Virtual Worlds
F. Asynchronous Messaging

From this list we were asked to choose 1 and blog.

Collaborative Document Editing
Wikipedia describes a collaborative editor, as a software application that allows several people to edit a computer file using different computers. Thus having options between Real-time editors that allow users to edit the same file at the same time, Or Non-real-time collaborative editors that do not allow editing of the same file at the same time.

An example of a real-time editor is one of the first applications to go mainstream SubEthaEdit (see image). Late 2004 the first version of Hydra(Original name), was built in just a few months with the intent of winning an Apple design Award, which it did at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2003. [1] This Mac-based system using Mac Bonjour/RendezVous is promoted as a development tool. The idea was to enable two or more people to edit on the same file at once. As such, the final output is a plain text file with all evidence of collaborative working removed. The editor is like IRC chats you begin to see the potential for collaborative editing in a broader sense, and the need for a collaborative document editor that may come in handy for our collaborative tasks.

Here are some screen shots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SubEthaEdit_Wiki_Mode.png


In an online article “Technology Transforms Writing and the Teaching of Writing” By Wendy R. Leibowitz writes how many professors try to combat the bad habits they fear their students pick up on computers. (Note this blog is one fine example).

“Professors say students come to college accustomed to writing in the unstructured, chatty style of e-mail discussions, but not in formal prose.”

"Computers make everyone write a lot more, and a lot longer. But they're absolutely not making them write better," Says April Bernard, who teaches literature at Bennington College.”

The article continues to compare ways of using computer-based writing tool to help improve their writing techniques. A professor discovered that allowing students to show there works online and have it available for people to read, and leave comments made students to work harder as their work would be critiqued by peers and professors, and complete utter strangers.

A Professor at Yale used the real-time collaborating editing tool during his lectures. He would allow his students to be involved in class discussion live and also be able to edit and critique students work live during the class session. Having real-time collaborative editors have become useful, but not in all cases. SubEthaEdit users have experienced issues with the real-time editing. Drew McClellan blogged his experience with SubEthaEdit and made some observations: That with more than 8 people it easily becomes super confusing. Because the colors of each user weren’t always trustworthy if two people can have the same colors and or colors don’t seem to match between the users computer. McClellan suggests an idea for future collaborations would be to have an IRC client running for chatter. Have two documents, one for throwing down thoughts, and one where the refined material can go. And having a ‘project leader’ that can make executive decisions on what stays and goes, since it can be daunting to challenge someone else’s suggestions.

Non-real-time collaborative editors are usually referred to as a Wiki.
A Wiki is web-based software that allows all viewers of a page to change the content by editing the page online in a browser. This makes the Wiki a simple and easy-to-use platform for cooperative work on texts and hypertexts. [4] Ward Cunningham developed the first Wiki, with the name WikiWikiWeb, in 1995. The software engineer from Portland, Oregon is considered to be a pioneer in the development of new methods, such as object-oriented programming, design patterns or extreme programming. [4] An example of a Wiki is Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia launched in 2001.

Screen-shot of Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Www.wikipedia.org_screenshot.png

Real-time collaborative text editing software

ACE (Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD) is a free software, collaborative text editor.

CoWord (Microsoft Windows) converts Microsoft Word into a real-time collaborative word processor and allows multiple users to collaboratively edit the same Word document at the same time.

GNU Emacs provides basic collaborative editing support under the X Window System, using the "make-frame-on-display" command.

GNU Screen allows multiple users to share one console screen, but they have to share a single cursor.

Gobby (Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X) is a free software, open source project.

ICT is a framework that allows multiple users to edit a shared document with unmodified, heterogeneous single-user editors.

MoonEdit (Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD) is free for non-commercial use and allows basic collaborative editing.

Saros (eclipse plugin) Eclipse Plug-in for Distributed Pair Programming Shared Page is a Java-based collaborative real-time editor.

SubEthaEdit (Mac OS X). UNA (All Platforms) is a multi-user development environment for software engineers, which includes a real-time collaborative editor.

EditGrid supports real-time event-driven collaborative editing of spreadsheets on the web.

Marratech is commercial software with a whiteboard function.

WhiteBoardMeeting is a multi-user whiteboard for Skype.

Reference:
[1] Collaborative real-time editor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_real-time_editor
[2] Collaborative Document Editing — All in the head http://allinthehead.com/retro/205/collaborative-document-editing
[3] The Chronicle: Information Technology: November 26, 1999 http://chronicle.com/cgi2-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com
[4] Wiki : Web Collaboration: Ebersbach, Anja.; Glaser, Markus.; Heigl, Richard.; Dueck, Gunter:2006.
[5] Leuf/Cunningham 2004