Task 6 - Intend

Intend could be understand as a purpose to have something go a certain way.

In any project the intended outcomes need to be identified. It is vital in a collaborative project for the intention of the project to be explicitly known to all members, this way each individual can contribute to the evaluation and implementation of the intended outcomes. The evaluation could become continuous processes to make sure project is heading toward the right outcomes.[1] See figure 1.


















Figure1. Outcome cycle - for continuous evaluation of intended outcomes

Just like goals, intended outcomes needs to be realistic and achievable and can be set in short term intentions and long term intentions. This way budget and timeline can be accurately allocated. In a project the outcome intention is not always achievable, e.g. untended budget spend. A project found itself in this situation after reviewing its outcome, they found two unintended outcomes one was the unintended role of the some of the members and to what extent they should try to complete their task when there are constraints and the second was the unintended time committed to tasks.[2] Unintended outcomes are apparently common due to constraints and unforeseeable events.

It has been noted down that project manager are responsible for managing the “…overall intention of the project, and to the specific description of the desired final product”, which is only reasonable as they are the one who set time frame, estimate costs on tasks and have the responsibility to make decision if more time is needed to complete a certain task.[3]

Intention can be proven through many different forms of communication whether through speech, written form, or any other visual form. The intention of the project must be addressed from the start to finish, this way goal and objective can be achieve effectively and efficiently.

In relating back to the fabrication task, each group should have an intended outcome to better plan out the tasks required to accomplish the project which in this case fabricating a model in UT3 that is as good as or even better than the falling water model. And the sub criteria to completing this task is to have it completed within due date with all project intended criteria met.
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[1] Rick Cummings, “Formative and Summative Evaluation of the Overall Project”, Murdoch University (2004), http://www.tlc.murdoch.edu.au/archive/cutsd99/finalpdfreports/Ch2Evaluation.pdf, viewed on 28 April 2008.
[Figure1] Sara Burns, Sally Cupitt, “The Outcomes Approach”, Homeless outcomes, London Housing Foundation, http://www.homelessoutcomes.org.uk/Outcomes_approach.aspx, viewed on 29 April 2008.
[2] Rick Cummings, op cit.
[3] Martyn Sanjay, “the Specifier guide to Project Management”, Specifier (2007), http://www.specifier.com.au/professionalDirectory/Project-Manager.html, viewed on 27 April 2008.

Task 5 - Knowledge

Knowledge is vital for any collaborative work, whether knowledge in a certain topic such as architecture, management, engineering, etc, or maybe social knowledge such as technological or society. Just as an Indian quote goes “knowledge is the true origin of sight not the eyes.”- Panchatantra. It is the eyes of individual, group and organisation. Knowledge is categorised into two types tacit and explicit. Tacit are more embed, it is knowledge that possess by individuals and explicit is tacit knowledge that has become available to everyone.[1]

Figure 1. Knowledge in collaboration
In collaboration knowledge help resolve conflicts face by the group as it provides a wide range of resolutions. Due to the recognition of the important of knowledge possess by individuals many organisations are encouraging the process of documenting and sharing of these knowledge such as in the form of documents, discussions, meeting notes and more, so that they become an explicit knowledge. The process involved “capturing, dispersing and using knowledge…” to “…help them achieve their strategic objectives.”[2] Today technology has become the driving force of knowledge sharing with the introduction of collaborative programs such as the wikis. However there is disadvantage to these technologies as most of the time it is only useful for those that are using them and for those that are not in the collaborative space they “lack the context to understand what they are seeing.”[3] Due to this problem knowledge or information needs to be control and manage by employee or external consultant in such a way that it get review and revise regularly to check its quality and relevant.[4]

Related to this theme, the knowledge possess by each individual before the fabrication task is a tacit knowledge, unless it is reveal and use as explicit knowledge in their fabrication works it would otherwise render as useless. In the process of knowledge or information collection and the learning process, team members need to determine the relevant and usefulness of knowledge and if a knowledge supersede another. Determining and comparing knowledge from different disciplines to find which is most useful to incorporate into the task. In these processes there will be many trials and errors; however this will act as knowledge gained from experiences which helps to better establish strategy in the future.
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[Figure1] C&C Reservoirs, “Customized DIGITAL ANALOGS Knowledge System”, C&C Reservoirs (2007), http://www.ccreservoirs.com/Services/index.htm, viewed on 22 April 2008.

[1] James, W., Cortada, John, A., Woods, “The Knowledge Management Yearbook 1999-2000” (Butterworth-Heinemann, 1999), p.1-4.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Step Two Designs Pty Ltd, “Collaboration tools are anti knowledge sharing?”, CM Briefing (2007), http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_antiknowledgesharing/index.html, viewed on 22 April 2008.
[4] James, W., Cortade, John, A., Woods, op cit., p.202.

Task 4 - Hierarchy

Hierarchy had been termed as “a system of ranking and organising things or people…”[1] It is structured in two main ways flat and pyramidal organisation. The speed of collaboration is determined by these structures.

Pyramidal structure tend to occurred in large project where the owner sits in the peak of the structure, information then travel down from one level to the next, as seen in figure 1.

Figure 1

Often on each level meetings are conducted if there is any conflict or any decision making needed to be resolve, the solution of the meeting is then communicated to other levels, and possibly need the approval of the top levels, therefore the collaboration is slow, as decision are often pass back and fore, if this can be condense it will “helps control costs by reducing the number of revisions during the design and construction.”[2]

A flat structure allowed communication to travel faster as there is only one level of management to report to with other layer of management being removed. This structure is becoming popular due to the following features “…faster decision making, shorter communication paths, stimulating local innovation…”[3]

All levels in both the flat and pyramidal hierarchy play an important role in the project collaboration, just as all five fingers play a part in the functioning of a hand. The cease of collaboration of one division will cause delay to the project, in both monetary and non-monetary terms, as the “ability to meet schedule commitments and remain within budget is directly related to the performance of both the design team and the owner”[4], which basically mean everyone within the hierarchy.

There is also the hierarchy of the tasks which involve organising and determining task priority. This allow for a comprehensive overview of the project, allowing every divisions in the hierarchy to have a clear project goals and aims.

The project that we are working on in my opinion has a flat hierarchical structure, with all five of the team members reporting to the group leader. With the collaboration of all members decision-making has been easy and fast. Communications are vice versa and efficient, through methods as face to face meetings, email, blogging, wiki, every member is informed simultaneously. The flat structure of the team has offered a chance for every member to collaborate and contribute their design innovation freely.

The group has also planned out the hierarchy of the fabrication tasks in order of priority by:
1) Collecting images of interior design to simulate ideas in term of styles, colour scheme, etc.
2) Modeling of furnitures and fittings, focusing on rooms that are most interesting placing hierarchy of importants on different spaces.
3) Create, insert map and texture.
4) Programming in unreal – adding sound effect on the environment, animation of doors, windows.

The above tasks guideline has help­­­­ed the group to have clear project goals and objectives.
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[1] Wikipedia, “Hierarchy”, Wikipedia, (21 March 2008), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy, (viewed 9 April 2008).
[2] American Society of Civil Engineers, “Quality in the Constructed Project: A Guide for”, (US: ASCE Publications, 2000), p.28.
[3] Kettley, P., “Is Flatter Better? Delayering the Management Hierarchy”, IES, (July 1995), http://www.employment-studies.co.uk/summary/summary.php?id=290, (viewed on 11 April 2008).
[4] American Society of Civil Engineers, op. cit., p. 80.
[Figure 1] American Society of Civil Engineers, op. cit., p.90.

Task 3 - Disciplines

There are several meaning to discipline, we will be looking at academic disciplines which termed by Wikipedia as “field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is taught or researched at the college or university level…Fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches.” [1]

Figure 1. Disciplines
There are various disciplines involved in an Architectural Collaboration such as architects, interior architects, landscape architects, project managers, planners, graphic designers, CAD personnel, photographers and a range of engineers: civil, structure, etc. All these disciplines contribute to the success of the project. Through effective collaboration time, budget and other constraints are met.

It is the involvement of a wide of disciplines that pushes the design process to its peak. Today many significant design works are an outcome of collaboration among many professional disciplines as they combine their talents and ideas.[2] A research done by Joanne Cys a senior lecturer of University of South Australia found that a project done by multi-disciplinary team members created positive result to the design processes, as it “added richness”, “inspired you to be more creative and push boundaries”, and that the “different disciplines brought something different to the table”.[3] Problems can be solve effectively with varies knowledge from different disciplines.

The project that we are working on is a good example of discipline in architectural collaboration. Our different skills and expertise we brought into the course is what branches us to different sub-disciplines of computing architecture. Clearly in the group work there are different roles played by each of us, example there are group leaders who check and organize meeting to see the progress of the work, project manager, modeling personnel, textural personnel, programming personnel for unreal, etc. One team member might take on more than one of these sub-disciplines. However it is beneficial for each of the team member to have a clear understanding of their strength or their discipline and how they can contribute those to the design work, this is what makes the project enriching. As point out by Joanne Cys “Those secure in the knowledge of their own field make the best collaborators”[4], as they are able to communicate their ideas effectively. In understanding each team member discipline tasks allocation are made easy, as the right task is given to the right person to complete, this way time and resources are not wasted.
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[Figure1] Usability Professionals' Association (UPA), “Related Fields”, Usability Professionals' Association (2005), http://www.usabilitybok.org/related, (viewed on 8 April 2008).

[1] Wikipedia, “List of academic disciplines”, Wikipedia, (5 April 2008), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_discipline, (viewed on 7 April 2008).
[2] Davis, C., “The Significance of Culture and Collaboration”, Design Intelligence, (1 July 2007), http://www.di.net/articles/archive/the_significance_culture_collaboration/, (viewed on 8 April 2008).
[3] J. Cys, “Collaboration: experiment, mess and risk” (Snr. Lecturer diss., University of South Australia, 2006), p.11.
[4] Ibid, p.2.

Image collection

I have uploaded some images of bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms,
living rooms, outside sittings on to google group and google album. I suppose our
next meeting, we will be go through the images that we upload and
pick the one we like to guide our modelling and texture on.

Task 2 - Collaborative Document Editing

Collaborative document editing is a process in which multiple people are able to edit a document using different computers. It replace the need to have a face to face document editing and multiple copies of the same document been edit individually.

Let’s start with the wiki. It is a web-based software that allow viewers of the site to edit the content of the page online using a browser. Wiki was first known of in 1995, the first wiki called WikiWikiWeb, today there are over 200 wikis they are sometime call wiki clones, to name a few are UseModWiki, MoinMoin, PhpWiki, WakkaWiki, etc. Wiki has been used: 1) in a closed work group or 2) directed to everybody over the World Wide Web. Wiki can be utilised in many ways as “an open, web-based content management system (CMS) for the editing and management of web presence or to supplement an existing CMS…” or “as your internationally accessible notepad or as discussion forums for general and specialised discussions”.[1] Social perspective is attack as most people find uncomfortable when they first started to use wiki, they felt that “…contribution from “others” will destroy…” their work. A Swedish data systems specialist Lars Aronsson still support the wiki system as she writes: “Most people, when they first learn about the wiki concept, assume that a website that can be edited by anybody would soon be rendered useless by destructive input…Still, it seems to work very well.”[2]

For this particular assignment we will have a feel of how wiki works as we use it for the group’s combine work. A useful feature of wiki is its history tool; it allows user to go all the way back to the first version of the file, however this might be narrowed due to limited space. This tool is handy for the group work when there are any coordination problems; any mistake could be undo easily. Some wikis offered what is called a “Diff” command, this tool is used to compare changes in two versions. This command will be a fast and efficient tool for the group to retrieve any deleted information that might be needed in the future. Another effective tool provided by wiki is a recent changes page, it provide an outline of recent changes to wiki pages within a certain time period, this will allow other team members to see and keep a record of changes done by others. [3] However there is short coming to wiki, some editors does not support concurrent editing. A user who is involved in writing projects and reports that involved collaboration noticed that if an online document was accidentally edited by two people at the same time it could cause one to lose all their edited work.[4]

Google Documents is another collaborative document editing program that is well known; it is very much similar to a wiki. Google Documents originated from a product called Writely and became Google Documents in March 2006 when it was bought by Google.[5] Many people who have experienced Google Documents would agree with Gordon McKinlay comment, that this is a great collaborative program for “allowing people to work together on a paper when they are not anywhere near each other.” [6] An advantage of this product is that it allows simultaneous editing however changes are only refresh every 30seconds (approximately). [7]

MoonEdit(ME) take one step further by allowing multiple members to edit a document in real-time, it does this by providing each member a cursor with a unique colour for differentiation on the screen, every single text changed are visible at real-time. It has a keyboard typing sound simulation that make a sound when someone else is making a change to the document. It has a history tool similar to wiki, it show what changes occurred when they last access it.[8] MoonEdit could be used as a collaborative text forum when trying to combine thoughts of different team members; taking advantage of its real-time feature we create something that is similar to a face to face meeting but even better.

Another one of this real time editor is SubEthaEdit. It basically promotes the same idea as the MoonEdit by allowing multiple people to edit a document at the same time and changes are refresh instantly. A user of this editor has described the experience this way “The effect is one of literally seeing multiple cursors on the page with everyone typing at once. It’s extremely cool”. However they also felt that there are some down sides to this product, they found to be confusing when there are too many people working on the document with no clean cut purpose which was hard to keep a track of who did what. And the product is only available for Mac OS X. [9] There are quite a few other products that offer real-time editing such as CoWord, ACE, UNA, to name a few that supports different computers.

In conclusion we see the commonality between those programs as it allow for collaborative document editing without the user been anywhere close to each other. What contrasts them is their add on commands and their different approach to attract different markets. Feature such as real-time editing found in MoonEdit and SubEthaEdit distinguish them from programs such as Google Documents and some wiki editors.

Click for video explaination of wiki

Click for video explaination of Google Documents

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[1] Ebersbach Anja et al., “The Wiki Concept”, in Reading in Wiki: Web Collaboration, (Berlin; New York : Springer Science & Business Media, 2006).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Good Robin, "Collaborative Document Review Online: PleaseReview", Masternewmedia, (Thursday, June 2 2005), viewed on 26 March 2008, http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/06/02/collaborative_document_review_online_pleasereview.htm
[5] Wikipedia, “Collaborative real-time editor”, Wikipedia, (19 March 2008), viewed on 26 March 2008, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_real-time_editor.
[6] Ramblings Gordon, "Collaborative Documents", Gordon's Ramblings blog, (09 March 2007), viewed on 26 March 2008, http://gordonsramblings.blogspot.com/2007/03/collaborative-documents.html
[7] Wikipedia, op. cit.
[8] Rossi L C D, "Synchronous Collaborative Text Document Editing Online: MoonEdit", Masternewmedia, (20 February 2005), viewed on 26 March 2008, http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2005/02/20/synchronous_collaborative_text_document_editing.htm
[9] McLellan Drew, "Collaborative Document Editing", All In The Head, (28 May 2004), viewed on 26 March 2008, http://allinthehead.com/retro/205/collaborative-document-editing.