COLLABORATION PORTAL:

The aim of VDS was to run a project so complex, so difficult that if we succeeded we would have a blueprint of how to recruit, support, connect and enable people to do collaborative engineering in any sector, any industry any time. The hope was to then be able to translate this information into a portal which could spark viral collaboration between folks working around campfires and in boardrooms. Our aim is to see the innumerate efforts going into the design of safe drinking water systems for the developing world, for example, not result in hundreds of versions of the same redundant work, but rather those safe efforts reinforce one another to build solutions which are locally tuned yet scalable, easily reference and easily used.

A large number of interesting portal designs exist today yet none have succeeded in creating the kind of easy to navigate database or human feel that problem solving requires. The aim of this project is to take a shot at a design that respects available technology, human intelligence and psychology to create something unique and powerful. MIT recently launched the MIT Global Challenges site in anticipation of the Institute's 150th anniversary and VDS is looking at ways to tie into this celebration and endeavor. 

KEY CONSIDERATIONS:

The collaboration portal should fill a need for people with ideas bigger than themselves to find people to work with and then work with them. The portal needs to be easy to use both to identify other projects that might serve as inspiration and also allow for realtime collaborative engineering. As an outcome, we are interested in three things. First, a functional map of the portal. Second, an interaction map can be used to guide the interface. Finally, a preliminary interactive demo of the portal to use to pitch to funders to build the real thing.

At the moment we are working on answers to the following questions:

What does the world need most right now?

How do we make the portal catalytic?

What are the weaknesses and strengths of current portals?

What features need to be included for the portal to work?

Do we aggregate content from other sites like kayak does flights?

Is ‘Google Earth’ for CAD possible?

How does the interface impact functionality?

What types of problems are best solved in a collaborative environment?