IBM's collaborative roots.
I'm one of those people who are neither
left nor right brain focused. This means that I am equally adept or inept
at performing structured detailed oriented tasks, as I am performing creative
tasks. I use the left side of my brain when I'm focusing on Shared Knowledge
Systems and Calendar2Calendar. Over the years I've used the right side
of my brain in creative ways that include photography, painting and jewelry
making. Its the last one that prompted a side business now dormant for
a number of years, and the need for a publication named The
Crafts Report.
I have once again started exercising
my creative bent, and in reorganizing my home office to accommodate this
activity I discovered old issues of The Crafts Report. Prior to tossing
them out I decided to thumb through them to see if there was any information
that might be relevant to my current activities. In general the most amusing
and irrelevant columns were those on computers. This is because all of
the issues are from the 1990's. However there was one article that intrigued
me from August 1994. The article tells how the "Coral Gables International
Festival of Craft Arts (CGIFCA) used computers and sophisticated software
to decide which applicants would be accepted." It turns out
the software was IBM's TeamFocus.
Most high quality crafts events are
juried. The jury review slides sent in by crafts artisans and assigns the
crafts person a score. The scores are tabulated with artisans selected
for inclusion based on their score and category. With TeamFocus the jurors
viewed the slides together using a projector, entered a score into their
computer terminals and the main computer then tallied the votes and saved
them. Using TeamFocus cut the selection process for the CGIFCA from
3 days to seven hours by using TeamFocus.
According to the article:
"TeamFocus was originally
developed by IBM in the late 1980's for in-house use. It was created to
assist focus groups, particularly in the area of software application development.
Using TeamFocus, programmers would question end-users about what
they wanted in software applications. The end-user's responses would pop
up immediately on the programmer's monitor, triggering more ideas and questions.
The end-users appreciated that their suggestions were anonymous."
TeamFocus was a DOS-based application
that ran on a LAN. Even then IBM understood the power of collaboration
and the need for anonymous contributions. Is it any wonder they ended up
buying Lotus Development Corporation one year later and turning Notes/Domino
into what it is today?
By searching on the web I discovered
that TeamFocus was eventually taken over by a company named Ventana
East Corporation. Ventana East in turn renamed the product Group Systems
V. Ventana East appears to have renamed itself Group
Systems and offers several collaboration
products under the Group Systems brand name. TeamFocus continues
to be one of IBM's
trademarks.
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