Collaborative work: characteristics and examples

There are many ways to carry out a task, but it is clear that this action will be easier if it is done in a group.

But it is not enough that there are several people for this coordination to automatically occur, but rather a series of premises must be met. We are going to discover what are the fundamentals of collaborative work and see some related examples.

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What is collaborative work?

Collaborative work is a way of producing elements or services whose key is the formation of a community of people who coordinate in carrying out the different tasks necessary to achieve, together, the common result that the group seeks. This way of working is also known as peer production, or peer production. In some places it is also called mass collaboration.

In order to carry out collaborative work, it is necessary to previously establish a socio-technical system by which all individuals can connect their activities to achieve the necessary level of cooperation

. Of course, today, the factor that has enabled this form of activity is none other than the Internet. Thanks to the network of networks, people in geographically widely separated places can collaborate with each other without any difficulty.

Another characteristic of collaborative work is that there is no strict formality between the collaborators and the resulting project, rather it is a kind of tacit pact among all of them. Therefore, the final result is not authored by anyone in particular, but by all those who have contributed their efforts, together, as a true community of equals.

This methodology is reminiscent of organisms that work as a kind of hive mind, with bees and ants being the clearest examples. In the societies of these animals there is no individual, only the community of all of them. For this reason, all the tasks contributed are part of a common objective, and are equally important for the purposes and needs of the whole.

Etymologically, the terms collaborative work were proposed by Yochai Benkler, Professor of Business Law at Harvard University. To establish the definition of this new concept, Benkler stated that two fundamental pillars had to be taken into account.

One would be the common good, which is what all the individuals in the group who are collaborating on the task seek. The other would be altruism, since there is no selfish end in the actions of anyone, but rather it is done for everyone. Hence, there is no individual authorship in this type of project., since no one is more important than another, regardless of whether some people have spent more time or more effort than others, since it is understood that each individual contributes what he can or wants, without this implying a problem.

Differences with teamwork

There are several characteristics that make collaborative work and teamwork look alike, but are very different concepts. For a start, the team is made up of a group defined for that task, while in collaboration, a series of subjects decide to pool their knowledge and effort. The team also has a clear leader, a figure who does not need collaborative work, since they all have the same status, without there being a hierarchy among them.

The responsibility of the tasks in the team is shared among all the members; In a collaboration, on the contrary, each subject is responsible for the task that he is doing at that moment..

Another concept that also varies is the objective sought, since in the team this is reflected in an optimized result, and in collaborative work is a production of new knowledge, thanks to the union of the contributions of each one.

The last point in which both styles would differ would be in the existence of coordinator, in charge of assigning and connecting the tasks of each team member. This position does not fit the definition of collaborative work, and it is that when an individual decides to join one of these projects, he already selects the part that he is going to develop at that moment, without the need for a person in charge to do it for him. indicate.

It is interesting to observe the psychological processes that occur in collaborative work and that we do not necessarily find in teamwork. Knowledge is built among all the collaborators of the project, and all the tasks are regulated by all the members, in what is known as metagroup activity. The motivation comes from the collaboration itself, since the individual wants to be part of the whole, by participating in it.

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An example: free and open source software

The best example of collaborative work is that of the different free and open source software projects that hundreds of programmers from all over the planet have developed, working in community even when they are thousands of kilometers from each other. others. Thanks to his altruistic work, today there are a multitude of programs that allow us all to perform a multitude of tasks, some of which are quite complex., using a computer, without having to pay an economic cost for it.

Of course, this does not imply that anyone who wishes can make the contribution that they consider, by way of donation. Many times that money is reinvested to be able to pay for the costs of servers and other necessary elements in the development of software, and in this way to be able to continue offering new products to all citizens, in a totally free and altruistic way.

In this type of work enter examples as well known as Wikipedia, a global encyclopedia in which anyone can become an editor and contribute their knowledge, always with duly referenced sources. It is currently one of the main sources of knowledge worldwide, and can even be downloaded to a flash drive (of course up to the point at which it is edited at that time) to take it to places without an internet connection and thus provide access to a rich source of know.

Linux is also very popular, as well as its different variants.. It is an open source operating system that breaks with the limitations of classic Windows or macOS, and in which everyone can contribute their technique to continue improving it every day, thus offering a free alternative for anyone who decides to install it on their computer.

exist programs also like LibreOffice or OpenOffice, which provide the same functionalities as those of the Microsoft Office package, with the difference that the former are free of charge and anyone can download and install them without the slightest problem. Being compatible with classic Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other programs, many users decide to opt for this alternative to create and open their documents.

Other examples of collaboration

Although collaborative work is an altruistic mechanism and therefore free, some organizations and companies have been able to take advantage of this type of activity to achieve other types of benefits. This is the case, for example, of NASA, the North American space agency. NASA requested the collaboration of anonymous citizens for a very important task, but at the same time long and tedious., such as mapping a certain area of ​​the cratered surface on the red planet.

Said proposal turned out to be an absolute success, since more than 85,000 people decided to lend their help, in very short intervals of time, but that added Together, they freed the NASA doctors from hundreds of hours of effort, which they could dedicate to other types of issues for their research. It is a great example of the potential and strength that collaborative work can acquire, even with very small contributions from its different components.

So did IBMalbeit from a different perspective. In this case, what the technology giant decided was to make financial contributions to different free and open source software projects, such as the examples we have seen above. But what was his benefit with this practice? Was it a non-refundable investment? Nothing is further from reality. This practice, in the long run, returned IBM a good profit.

And it is that, by contributing to expanding the offer of free software and making the use of computers something simple and economically very accessible for the average citizen, many people would decide to purchase a computer for home use (and even work), and in many of these cases they would opt for one of the computers that the IBM house gave them. would offer. A master plan, demonstrating how everyone can benefit from collaborative work, even in the long term.

Bibliographic references:

• Fruits, A.E. (2010). Interculturality, mediation and collaborative work. Madrid. Narcea S.A. of Editions.
• Lucero, M. M. (2003). Between collaborative work and collaborative learning. Ibero-American Magazine of Education.
• Perez, M. M. (2007). Collaborative work in the university classroom. Laurus.
• Vázquez, J.M., Hernández, J.S., Vázquez-Antonio, J., Juárez, L.G., Guzmán, C.E. (2017). Collaborative work and socioformation: a path towards complex knowledge. Education and Humanism.