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Bioteaming
Swarmteams® has been developed in response to research into biological teams and groups (aka "bioteams") such as micro-organisms, ants, bees and dolphins. This research, described in www.bioteams.com with nearly 500 articles and papers, identifies why these groups are able to achieve amazing levels of responsiveness, adaptability and resilience compared with human teams. The Bioteaming Manifesto identifies twelve principles of biological teaming (bioteams) - Swarmteams has been specifically designed to support these principles including:
- Stop Controlling - Communicate information not orders
- Team Intelligence - Mobilise everyone to look for group threats and opportunities
- Permission Granted - Achieve accountability through transparency not permission
- Always-On - Provide 24*7 instant "in-situ" message hotlines for all team members
- Symbiosis - Treat external partners as fully trusted team members
- Cluster - Nurture the team's internal and external networks and connections
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Definitions
Swarming
Exceptionally agile group co-ordination whilst on the move
Swarm Intelligence*
The ability of a group to quickly apply its collective capabilities to a situation
Swarm Messaging
Using messaging (Text/SMS and Internet/Instant Messaging) to enable mobile groups to swarm or demonstrate swarm intelligence
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*Note this definition of Swarm Intelligence is a generalisation of its conventional definition which is the “Design of algorithms or distributed problem solving devices inspired by the collective behaviour of social insect colonies and other animal societies”. (see “Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artifical Systems” by Eric Bonabeau, Marco Dorigo and Guy Theraulaz).
Messages not emailThe concept of communicating by ‘message rather than mail’ is a cornerstone of Swarmteams. This design is based on nature’s oldest signalling system – smell not speech (chemical pheromones) and is described in The perfect mobile messaging system: pheromone signals.
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Message Instincts v Document Instincts
Recovering team and group Messaging Instincts discusses how most human groups (excluding young people and 'IM'ers) have forgotten their natural messaging instincts by overuse of their 'document instincts'.
Group Rings and Message Ranges
Group Dynamics suggests that there are usually three clearly defined levels (or rings) of engagement in any group or team. We can use this to balance the constant tensions between transparency and relevancy in any group. All Swarmteams messages are transparent to all the members of the swarm but message rings allow you to avoid notifiying a swarm member about something which they may not need to know about just then. This concept is described in The 3 rings of member commitment in any dynamic group.
Shouts, Whispers and Gossips
Swarmteams embodies a concept based on observation of certain biological teams that some types of recurrent sub-group communication within a team can be cliquish and destructive – this is discussed further in Team communication patterns: key lessons from nature.
Reputation in Groups
Recently published articles on effective self-managing and self-organising groups and teams suggests that a major motivator for group members is the enhancement of their reputation with their peer group. Swarmteams offers an optional Reputation Management System (Swarmpoints) to encourage active participation and thoughtful messaging contributions by members. For more on the role of reputation in groups see Success secrets of Open Source project teams and Open Source and Toyota teams compared
InterSwarming
Swarmteams also allows swarms to interact and link with each other in novel ways. These interactions are based on the biological theory of Symbiogenesis which is introduced in Network date to create complex business networks fast and introduces the idea of linking, bonding and merging between swarms.
Swarm Ecosystems
Finally one of the most interesting applications for Swarmteams is using it to develop and nurture your personal ecosystem of social/business relationships. Over time each swarm user naturally evolves their own unique swarm ecology which becomes powerful social software which they can use to locate people and knowledge. See How is your personal ecosystem of relationships.
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