In theory, collaboration is the ideal state for a group working towards a goal.  Collaboration is great, It seems like it should be easy, especially in an era when communication is easy, instantaneous, and gives a seemingly endless variety of tools for humans to work together across geographical divides.

Within the last fifteen years the concept of “the office” has changed dramatically due to the internet and social media tools that allow us to work with people in offices across the country, reach our customers and library patrons, and as was pointed out in our class’s discussion thread last week, work together to transcribe the menus of New York.  I think collaboration is something great to be strived for, but it seems like too often, organizations and teams can run into roadblocks that can derail even the best intentions of teamwork.  I’d like to explore some of the reasons collaboration can be a challenge, even in the ideal circumstances.

A major factor in the success of collaboration is trust.  While telecommuting and working with teams who are not in the same physical space on projects that are based online through social media platforms are efficient in that participants can work any time of the day, any place in the world.  But as Nilofer Merchant argues in the Harvard Review, collaboration can be a dangerous thing when expectations of roles, outcomes, and recognition are unclear.  To expand on this point, in Sally Ellis’ article “A History of Collaboration, a Future in Crowdsourcing: Positive Impacts of Cooperation on British Librarianship,” she quotes Nina Simon, a museum design consultant, on why collaboration can break down in the case of institutions turning to crowdsourcing, “Many museums fear losing control… [but] [t]here’s a difference between having power and having expertise… [m]useums will always have the expertise, but they may have to be willing to share the power.”  It seems to me that without trust, collaboration is not possible.  Trust that people will do what they say they will at the time they say they will.   Trust that collaborators will supply the correct information and that they have the best interests of the project at heart, and trust that everyone is working towards the same goal.  Without these elements, any project could have the misfortune of falling apart.  But, in a perfect storm of contributors staying on the same page towards a common reward, collaboration can be a ideal workspace to create something pretty great.

A few weeks ago, there was a class discussion thread about the journalist Lindy West’s confrontation with one of her trolls.  I was glad to see this discussion and while I added some thoughts to the thread, I’ve realized after a few weeks this story has really stuck with me, so I’m going to delve a little deeper.

There will always be bullies.  There will always be trolls.  The common thing you hear as a child when someone is mean to you is that “Well, that person feels bad about themselves so they want everyone else to be miserable.”  Judging from so many of the internet comments I’ve seen, boy, there’s a lot of miserable people out there.  And that’s too bad.  But when they feel they have the right to take it out personally on other people from the safety of their anonymity is where I take issue.  As I said in the discussion thread, the part of Lindy’s conversion with her troll that made me stop what I was doing out of shock was his self-aware admittance of his reason for his hateful abuse “I think my anger towards you stems from your happiness with your own being. It offended me because it served to highlight my unhappiness with my own self.”  WHAT.  How can someone that self-aware create so much hate?  Because he’s human, and humans will sometimes make horrible choices when they’re unhappy.  So while trolling is something that could depress and anger me, I’d rather look at the ways that harassment victims can collaborate to bring light to the abuse that is taking place  by creating an online culture where there is a social recourse to sending violent threats to

While I think it’s great that there are laws starting to take place to address online harassment and bullying, it will be a while before there is a clear course of action for those who are harassed online.  It makes me wonder how social media users can collaborate to create safer spaces for discussion, especially spaces that have been resistant in the past to outside voices. without worrying about receiving abusive threats?  In the real world, the majority of people do not go around threatening or insulting anyone they disagree with because of social mores and possible damage to reputation.  Online of course, there are much fewer barriers to hate speech and bullying, so those who cannot say how they really feel on a daily basis

To be clear, I am in no way advocating that we should stoop to the same level of trolls who will “dox” someone by releasing such personal information such as addresses and social security numbers.  I do believe though, that the risk of having one’s name connected to their hate speech could be a powerful deterrent to sending out abusive messages if one faces the risk of being outed as a hatemonger.

For example, some women who have received rape and death threats on Twitter will retweet them to let their online communities be aware of what they are experiencing or to alert law enforcement of the threats they have received.  Or in the case of Alanah Pearce who, when she found out the identities of her harassers were teenage boys, she contacted their mothers to let them know what their sons were up to.  So many women have experienced this, and by speaking up about the hate mail they are receiving, it sheds light on what is going on.  With increased awareness, such as journalists writing about these women’s experiences and online communities who will collaborate to support the victims of these threats by creating a culture where this kind of behavior will not be tolerated.

I know that with secured anonymity on the internet,  trolls will not be gone any time soon, and the common adage is “Don’t feed the trolls!” .  But until there is an online culture where everyone feels safe to participate, the tide of trolls may possibly be deterred using collaboration and self-policing of online communities to deter those who want to make others feel unsafe from participating in online cultures.