We are hoping that people will suggest components, specify needs, send components for comment and test, and so on. Here are some preliminary suggestions for possible software components to support collaborative applications.
It will often be the case in SNA and other functions that one would like to follow links in both directions. This would apply to formal organizational links, threads in email and discussion forums, etc.
We would often like to see the correlation among variables. For instance, we could use this to find correlations between Babble participation and email. How do hits on the website correlate to various promotions.
Often we want to see how measures change over time. For instance, what is the trend of e-mail or Babble participation. What is the trend for participation? What is the trend for ideas generated in an idea generation session? When does this flatten out suggesting it may be time to move to the next phase.
It is easy to “forget” what is required or suggested by a special role; e.g., it is easy for a facilitator to become involved in “pushing” their own ideas. Reminders are one form of support. Another could be simple textual analysis tools; e.g., showing a facilitator who is not participating or if they are dominating the conversation.
This looks at word patterns to find values as expressed in text. Can be used as one basis for matching people or insuring diversity in a group.
This can be rendered as reminders or maps. Internally, there is a model of the ordering of processes and signs that should accompany these as well as signs for changing from one process to another.