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| # Understanding the Collaboration Tool | ||
| # Collaboration Tools | ||
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| ## What is a Collaboration Tool? | ||
| Collaboration Tools in Alkemio help communities **share knowledge**, **engage in discussions**, and **structure their work**. Instead of relying on external documents, spreadsheets, or whiteboards, these tools allow users to collaborate directly **within a Space or Subspace**, keeping everything organized and accessible. | ||
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| **Collaboration Tools** are essentially potential questions people may want to raise after starting to work in a **Space** or a **Subspace**. Collaboration Tools should be created to clarify concepts and answer possible questions the community may have. They are a way to involve the community and get feedback on how the overall Space is progressing. | ||
| Below, you’ll find an overview of the available tools, where they can be used, and how they support different types of collaboration. | ||
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| ### Why Create Collaboration Tools? | ||
| ## Types of Collaboration Tools | ||
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| Collaboration Tools help in: | ||
| - **Clarifying Concepts**: Making sure everyone has a clear understanding of the project's goals and methodologies. | ||
| - **Engaging the Community**: Encouraging active participation and feedback from community members. | ||
| - **Tracking Progress**: Monitoring how the Space or Subspace is evolving and addressing any emerging challenges promptly. | ||
| ### Post | ||
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| ### What Can You Do by Creating Collaboration Tools? | ||
| Use Posts to **initiate discussions**, **share messages**, and **ask questions** within your Space. They support text formatting, references, embedded media and images, making it easy to communicate updates or gather input from members. | ||
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| By creating Collaboration Tools, you can: | ||
| - **Facilitate Communication**: Ensure smooth and effective communication among community members. | ||
| - **Enhance Problem-Solving**: Provide structured ways to address and solve issues collaboratively. | ||
| - **Increase Efficiency**: Streamline the workflow and make the collaborative process more efficient. | ||
| Key Features: | ||
| - Allows comments from community members | ||
| - Can include text, images or embedded media | ||
| - Attach references, like webpages or documents | ||
| - Ideal for discussions, announcements, and quick feedback | ||
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| Read more about text fields and embedding links on the [page about making your post look beautiful](/how-to/make-post-beautiful). | ||
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| # Types of Collaboration Tools | ||
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| Discussions with the Alkemio Community have brought forward that users want to contribute in multiple ways: to grow the community, to frame challenges, and to build up shared knowledge. This is now possible! Our selection of collaboration tools offers you the ability to start collaborating directly in the context. Not in a separate document, or Miro board, or spreadsheet, but directly in a Space where you have also gathered the community, the Subspaces, and the Knowledge base. | ||
| ### Whiteboard | ||
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| In this Support page, we will explain what types the platform offers, where you can use them, and how the use of our templates can help you. | ||
| A Whiteboard enables **real-time visual collaboration**. Members can **sketch, add notes, or map out ideas** together, making it useful for brainstorming sessions or structuring thoughts visually. | ||
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| ## Tools list | ||
| Key Features: | ||
| - Multiple participants can contribute simultaneously | ||
| - Supports drawings, sticky notes, and structured templates | ||
| - Attach references, like webpages or documents | ||
| - For example useful for brainstorming, planning, and stakeholder mapping | ||
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| When working on a set of Subspaces, effective collaboration tools are essential for sharing information, gathering knowledge, and enabling interaction among community members. Depending on the context, you might need different ways to engage with your community. Here are the current collaboration tools available on the platform: | ||
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| - **A Post**: Use this tool to initiate discussions, share messages (including guidance videos), or pose questions to the community. Members can respond with comments. | ||
| - **A Whiteboard**: Collaborate visually in real time. Multiple participants can add notes, drawings, or other visual elements to a stakeholder map or collectively sketch out the vision for a Subspace. | ||
| - **A Collection of Links and Documents**: Curate relevant materials by creating a set of links. This could include articles, blog posts, or guidance documents. Members can contribute by adding links along with brief descriptions. | ||
| - **A Call for Posts**: For more structured information gathering, use this tool. As a lead, you can include guiding questions or ask for specific information that members fill in. Responses can be more extensive, including references, tags, and visuals. Other members can also comment on each other’s responses. | ||
| - **A Call for Whiteboards**: When seeking multiple visual responses, consider using this tool. The lead can choose a template for members to follow—for instance, asking everyone to draw their vision for a particular challenge. | ||
| Read more about using whiteboards on the [Whiteboard Page](/how-to/whiteboards) | ||
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| Feel free to explore these tools and adapt them to your community’s needs! 🚀 | ||
| ### Collection of Links and Documents | ||
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| ### Where Can I Use These Collaboration Tools? | ||
| This is a structured way to **curate and share relevant materials** such as articles, reports, and blog posts. Community members can also contribute by adding their own links and insights. | ||
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| As mentioned before, the **Hosts** are now able to use these tools on any page! This allows them to ask the question where it makes the most sense. Let’s give you some examples: | ||
| Key Features: | ||
| - Organize important resources in one place | ||
| - Members can add links and documents with descriptions | ||
| - Ideal for research, best practices, or reference materials | ||
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| - **A Post** on the **Dashboard Tab** to ask for comments, suggestions, feedback. | ||
| - **A Collection of Links** on the **Dashboard Tab** to share guiding materials to get started in this Space. | ||
| - **A Whiteboard** with a stakeholder map on the **Community Tab**, so that the community can contribute with their insights about the current ecosystem. | ||
| - **A Post** on the **Community Tab** to ask members to introduce themselves or suggest other people/organizations to invite (see example below). | ||
| - **A Call for Posts** on the **Subspaces Tab** where members can submit ideas for creating Subspaces to work in by filling in a few context questions. | ||
| - **A Call for Posts** with relevant articles related to the topic on the **Knowledge Base Tab**. | ||
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| ### How Can I Use Templates? | ||
| Note that when creating a new Collection Links and Documents, you can only add links and documents after publishing the Collaboration Tool. | ||
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| To guide you in creating these collaboration tools to activate your community, the Alkemio Template Library offers a set of templates. There is a lot of knowledge, best practices, and templates out there related to innovation. Organizations as well as knowledge institutions often promote these materials via their websites or internal channels, but it is hard to find for the wider community. More importantly, it is hard to directly use them when you want to start collaborating with multiple stakeholders. The platform offers an **Template Library** that gathers all these materials and makes them directly available for you to apply in your Space. | ||
| ### Call for Posts | ||
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| These templates can be used both when you want to open a new callout as well as when you are submitting a new answer or contribution. Note that in principle the leads are able to open a new callout, but they can also choose to allow any member to open a new callout. | ||
| A Call for Posts allows **structured information gathering** by providing **predefined questions or headers** that members can fill in. This is ideal for collecting insights, crowdsourcing ideas, or running structured discussions. | ||
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| There are two relevant types of templates: | ||
| Key Features: | ||
| - Leads can set specific guiding questions or a structure | ||
| - Members can submit detailed responses, including references and visuals | ||
| - Other members can comment on responses | ||
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| #### Post Templates | ||
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| These templates allow you to choose a set of default text or questions that each contribution must include. Here are a few examples as inspiration: | ||
| When contributing to a Call for Post, hit the '+' button and the window opens up with a text editor prefilled by the creator of the Call for Posts. Fill in a title and fill up the description following the instructions in the text editor. | ||
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| - **User Story Template**: | ||
| - You want each user to start their answer with a user story. Then you would set the default text for each post: *As a … I want … so that …* Each member can then submit their contribution in a more structured way using this template. | ||
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| - **News Article Submission**: | ||
| - You want users to submit relevant news articles related to a specific Subspace. Then you could state that each contribution must provide a description, why it is relevant for the Subspace, and the source. | ||
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| - **Organization Involvement**: | ||
| - You ask the community to share what organizations should be involved. Then you could let members answer a few questions. For example: | ||
| 1. **Why do you think this organization is relevant?** | ||
| 2. **How would you like to approach them?** | ||
| 3. **Do you need any help?** | ||
| ### Call for Whiteboards | ||
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| When starting a new **Call for Posts**, you can define the default text to structure the answers of your community. When a member submits a new answer, they will be prompted to fill in these questions. | ||
| This tool allows members to **respond with visual contributions**. Leads can set up a template, such as a vision board or a stakeholder map, and ask members to **submit their own whiteboard responses**. | ||
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| #### Whiteboard Templates | ||
| Key Features: | ||
| - Leads can choose or create a structured template | ||
| - Members submit visual responses instead of text-based input | ||
| - Great for design thinking, strategic planning, and creative exercises | ||
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| Secondly, you can use our **whiteboard templates** to gather input from the community. You can think of templates for: | ||
| - **Stakeholder Maps** | ||
| - **Brainstorm Sessions** | ||
| - **Innovation Funnels**, etc. | ||
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| When you start a new **Whiteboard** or a **Call for Whiteboards**, you can directly choose a template from the library of your Space or the platform’s Innovation Library. You can edit them to make them suitable for the particular question. Every time a member wants to submit their contribution, they can use the whiteboard. | ||
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| ### More Settings for the Collaboration Tools | ||
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| There are several settings that will help you make the most of these collaboration tools. For example, you can: | ||
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| - **Edit**: After creating the tool, you still have the possibility to edit; | ||
| - **Close Them for Answers**: In the edit window, you can decide to turn the switch **‘Accept New Responses’** on or off. Members are still able to see the previous answers and comment on them, but they cannot submit new ones; | ||
| - **Create Them in Draft State**: Make them only visible for the admin. When the admin is ready to share it with the community, they can publish it (with the option to notify the community); | ||
| - **Sort Contributions**: Adjusting the order of the contributions that were added to the tool; | ||
| - **Save as Template**: You can save the tool as a template. You will find the template back in your Space Template Library; | ||
| - **Move Them Up and Down**: Reorder the tools or move them to the bottom or top of the list as well as between the various pages; | ||
| - **Share Them**: Share with other people inside and outside of the platform; | ||
| - **Expand the Dialog**: See a clearer overview of all contributions; | ||
| - **Close Them for Answers**: In the settings, you can decide to turn the switch **‘Accept New Responses’** on or off. Members are still able to see the previous answers and comment on them, but they cannot submit new ones; | ||
| - **Create Them in Draft State**: Make them only visible for the admin. When the admin is ready to share it with the community, they can publish it (with the option to notify the community). | ||
| - **Share Them**: Share with other people inside and outside of the platform; | ||
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| ## Where Can You Use These Collaboration Tools? | ||
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| Depending on the settings of a (Sub)Space, only the **admins** or all members are able to use these tools on any page! This allows them to ask the question where it makes the most sense. Let’s give you some examples: | ||
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| - **A Post** on the **Dashboard Tab** to ask for comments, suggestions, feedback. | ||
| - **A Collection of Links** on the **Dashboard Tab** to share guiding materials to get started in this Space. | ||
| - **A Whiteboard** with a stakeholder map on the **Community Tab**, so that the community can contribute with their insights about the current ecosystem. | ||
| - **A Post** on the **Community Tab** to ask members to introduce themselves or suggest other people/organizations to invite (see example below). | ||
| - **A Call for Posts** on the **Subspaces Tab** where members can submit ideas for creating Subspaces to work in by filling in a few context questions. | ||
| - **A Call for Posts** with relevant articles related to the topic on the **Knowledge Base Tab**. | ||
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| ## How Can Collaboration Tools Help? | ||
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| Collaboration Tools support a variety of community-driven activities: | ||
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| - **Engaging the Community**: Encourage participation and idea-sharing. | ||
| - **Structuring Information**: Organize discussions, resources, and brainstorming in a clear format. | ||
| - **Enhancing Decision-Making**: Use visual tools like Whiteboards to structure complex challenges. | ||
| - **Gathering Insights**: Use Calls for Posts to crowdsource perspectives and structured input. | ||
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| By integrating these tools, Spaces and Subspaces can improve communication, make collaboration more effective, and accelerate progress. | ||
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| ### Get Started! | ||
| Templates can further enhance these tools by providing predefined structures and best practices. Learn more about **how to use templates** on the [Templates Page](features/templates). | ||
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| The current tools are just a glimpse of what they can offer you in the future—think of Polls, Stack Overflow, or other types of integrations. Have fun using them, share your experiences with other users of the platform, and share your feedback! |
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