Collaborative Intelligence

Chapter 5Collaboration Spaces

Creating the Ideal Environment

In 2005, I (Mariano) co‐founded a small company called Three Melons, which focused on creating online games. After launching an online hit called Bola and spending some time on the market, we were lucky to be acquired by Disney in 2010.

No longer a small start‐up, we found ourselves collaborating between Buenos Aires (our home city), Mountain View, and Los Angeles. Now, we experienced the passive cognitive style of slide decks first‐hand: Our new colleagues leaned back and judged each bullet point. Rather than contributing new ideas and improving on what was there, they assumed what they saw was “done” and no longer open to discussion.

What we saw, however, was that slides don't invite participation or the exploration of concepts. They tend to lull audiences to sleep. We wanted people to participate, to feel like they could change and even “break” things without fear.

To solve our own problem, we came up with the concept of the Mural whiteboard, which we originally called “Medley Board.”

Medley Board was a concept for a two‐dimensional online environment that allowed participants to visualize their thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways. It made use of color and shapes and different formats, and participants could ...