Robin Rice
Electronic collaboration with distant partners: the (success) story of the IASSIST web action group

r.rice@ed.ac.uk

How a far-flung group of creative IASSIST volunteers managed to overcome the odds and re-build the organisation's website from scratch. This brief presentation will focus on some of the problems and solutions of collaborative volunteer work, using this action group as a case study.

  • tools - communicating at a distance and in a group of equals
  • momentum - getting past the talking phase to the doing phase
  • organising - making the most of people's offerings
  • empowering - ensuring that volunteers benefit from intrinsic rewards
  • process - turning a one-off effort into a blueprint for the future.

The IASSIST website is http://www.iassistdata.org. The new version will be launched at the IASSIST Business Lunch, Thursday June 13th, 2002.

Robin Rice
Data Librarian
Edinburgh University Data Library
Main Library Bldg., George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ
R.Rice@ed.ac.uk