Hi, Google spreadsheet is good -- people can glance at other ideas to stimulate their own.
Small groups are best and it is easy to enter things in a spreadsheet. Have a dedicated notetaker who is not part of the brainstorming type the notes in (let all the others focus their cognitive efforts on the items. Combine the lists. Instill a bit of competitive spirit by "trying for 50 or more items for each group". Set a number that you expect will be a bit of a stretch. Make explicit ground rules and send to each group. There should be no criticism verbally between groups or internally with each group. Forget the video for this, that will likely distract from the issue. Publish the items and invite people to add things they think of after the meeting for several days if possible. Assign a remote facilitator to enforce the basic rules of brainstorming and keep things going on the remote end. Test out Google Spreadsheet with a few people first to get the technology down so you aren't wasting time that could be used for idea generation. If you use something else, do a pilot run. LiveMeeting is somewhat cumbersome so if you use it and are not really familiar with it, do a test run. There is a term in the brainstorming research called "production blocking" which is anything that blocks the production of ideas, including side conversations, war stories that take up time that should go to other ideas, technology glitches, and evaluation apprehension if managers or senior people are there or listening in. I would advise not mixing people of widely different statuses. I like to list the things that will reduce the effectiveness of brainstorming when I introduce the meeting and note that the facilitators will warn people if they are violating a ground rule (nicely of course). Ask your remote facilitator to write the question that you are addressing on the board, literally. If you have people at multiple sites, ask them to write the question or problem down on a sheet of paper. This helps people who are remote stay in tune with the purpose of the session. Ask people to do a bit of prep by writing down some ideas for the question or problem before the sessions. You might also ask them to do some homework (look at things that might provoke ideas, so some reading related to the topic area. I' ve written a chapter on brainstorming based on the research literature over the last 25 years or so. I've also been experimenting with application of the research recommendations and they actually work quite well in practice. I would be quite interested in hearing how your session went. Amy Cueva and I did a talk on brainstorming at the recent UPA conference where we highlighted some key best practices/ground rules and some variations on brainstorming like brainwriting and free listing. If you are interested, you can download some of our notes at http://www.madpow.net/events/UPA08/UPA2008_Brainstorming_BackUpMaterials.ppt Thanks and good luck Chauncey On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:17 PM, Darren Ellis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for the reply, Sarah. The group will be roughly 5 people so > that's good. > > I like the idea of using Google docs for sharing and capturing notes > immediately. I also discovered someone in the other office has a Mac > so we can position our laptops appropriately and fire up video > conferencing via iChat. > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=30944 > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
