Who We Are - Page One, The Collaborative


The Collaborative for Software Developers and Innovators aims to improve the way in which we develop software. We place the highest value on the capability growth of the individual developer, and on providing an environment which supports talented, diligent performance. Our vision is to build a distributed commmunity where we serve our customers well, receive good pay for good work, and collaborate to improve both.

The key challenges a distributed software development organization faces are not simply technological, but also sociological: the challenges of social interaction and social organization. The difficulties of creating new technologies is much less than the problems of facilitating and encouraging successful online interaction and online communities.

To facilitate functioning as a distributed team, each of us uses skills and expereince in:

Collaborative Development - Distributed Development - Working Principles - Master Apprentice - Lean Development

The CSDI model operates according to principles laid out in the following:

Design Principles of Online Communities (paper by Kollock)

From APPENDIX: Lists of Design Principles for Communities: www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/design.htm

Axelrod's (1984) requirements for the possibility of cooperation:

  1. Arrange that individuals will meet each other again
  2. They must be able to recognize each other
  3. They must have information about how the other has behaved until now

Ostrom's (1990) design principles of successful communities:

  1. Group boundaries are clearly defined
  2. Rules governing the use of collective goods are well matched to local needs and conditions
  3. Most individuals affected by these rules can participate in modifying the rules
  4. The right of community members to devise their own rules is respected by external authorities
  5. A system for monitoring members' behavior exists; this monitoring is undertaken by the community members themselves
  6. A graduated system of sanctions is used
  7. Community members have access to low-cost conflict resolution mechanisms

Godwin's (1994) principles for making virtual communities work:

  1. Use software that promotes good discussion
  2. Don't impose a length limitation on postings
  3. Front-load your system with talkative, diverse people
  4. Let the users resolve their own disputes
  5. Provide institutional memory
  6. Promote continuity
  7. Be host to a particular interest group

For Biographies of Current CSDI Team Members, See: Biographies