Jeff Conklin

gIBIS: a hypertext tool for team design deliberation

This paper introduces an application-specific hypertext system designed to facilitate the capture of early design deliberations, which implements a specific design method called Issue Based Information Systems (IBIS). The hypertext system described here, gIBIS(for graphical IBIS), makes use of color and a high speed relational database server to facilitate building and browsing typed IBIS networks. Further, gIBIS is designed to support the collaborative construction of these networks by any number of cooperating team members spread across a local area network. Early experiments suggest that the gIBIS tool, while still incomplete, forges a good match between graphical interface and design method even in this experimental version.

Facilitated hypertext for collective sensemaking: 15 years on from gIBIS

This paper outlines the technical and social dimensions to a hypertext tool that has been successfully used in organizational settings to improve meetings, and capture group memory in real time. The approach derives from hypertext research systems from the mid-1980s-90s which sought to manipulate conceptual structures as hypertextual concept maps. However, many did not receive sustained use due to issues of cognitive overheads and representational inflexibility. Many decided that such tools would never fulfill their promise. The gIBIS system exemplified this early work, but has since evolved into a broader approach to collective sensemaking called Compendium. We outline Compendium, which demonstrates the impact that a hypertext facilitator can have on the learning and adoption problems that often ambush hypertext sensemaking tools before they have the chance to establish roots in work practice.