Collaborative Technologies

During the Phoenix WGM (January 2006) a "Wiki Nite" was organized as one of the "open space" meetings during the WGM. The aim was to raise awareness of Wiki technology (and other collaborative technologies) to support the process of creating HL7 standards.

Mayo is willing to host the HL7 Wiki until such a time that HL7 decides to host it, and provided that use of (human) resources is limited.

Wiki

A Wiki is a good tool to capture some of the outcomes of the discussions on the various lists, and or to document some "lore" that has been floating around. One of the possible benefits of a Wiki to HL7 is reducing the traffic on listserves. The HL7 listserves occasionally erupt into lengthy back-and-forth discussions that have diminishing information value to the majority of list-readers. If there was a better mechanism to move those discussions to a more focused venue, many people would be grateful.

How Wikis support a TC/SIG or collaborations between TC/SIGs:

1. Consensus process for an issue. A highly contentious issue (lots of e-mail traffic on the lists) can be halted after initial discussion. A summary can be posted to the Wiki, for all partcipants to edit, until a consesus version has been reached.
2. Harmonisation Proposals. Publishing, public comment period. Update with discussion + harmonisation result during the harmonisation meeting (i.e. supports the harmonisation meeting itself as well). Provides immediate feedback to all as of the latest status and outcomes of the harmonisation proposal.
3. Glossary items
4. Agenda (e.g. for a WGM)
5. Action item list
6. During a WGM: for each TC/SIG, post (on a daily basis) a summary of issues that were discussed and that may have an impact on other comittees. Or: highlights in general.

• What does a Wiki offer as opposed to e-mails on the list, or a proposal Word document ?
• Present TWiki features (Dana Carrington/Russ Hamm, Mayo): One thing that concerns me about Wikis in general is that they do not provide out of the box infrastructure to help manage document evolution, scheduling, resolution tracking, etc. There is another potential tool called TWiki that the Department of Informatics at Mayo has been exploring that addresses some of the above issues. In this regard we have also looking at how to import the existing wiki content into a TWiki.

• Organizational issues
  • Management of the Wiki: who will take responsibility for vetting the information placed in the HL7 Wiki? What should the HL7 Wiki Etiquette look like ? One of the nice aspects of a Wiki site is the opportunity to have free exchange of thoughts. The challenge is that changes are made more easily and is therefore subject to proper wiki etiquette and discipline, as well as that at any point in time the site may not be reflective of the collective consensus on a particular topic. Simple Wiki etiquette requires that contributors stick to facts and consensus on the main pages. The comments/talk/discussion pages are for anything that is questionable, controversial, or unsettled. Wiki Moderators need a effective way of discouraging heated open disputes.
  • Do we need a Wiki that is maintained/controlled/administered by HL7.org, and if so, how do we arrange this?
  • Normative status of the Wiki content. A combination of a wiki site and a web site, one flowing freely and openly knowing that it is such a dynamic site, the other controlled and reflective of agreed to direction and "sanctioned" materials, suits the combined needs. In a way the wiki is no more sanctioned then the cumulative list server activity, but easier to get the bigger picture of a discussion.

Skype/IRC

Technoligies like Skype/IRC are especially used during WGMs for "cross-comittee consultantions". The parties involved are taking part in committee meetings of separate committees, but are able to briefly consult a domain-expert which is in another meeting.