Digital Appendix

This is my last update, as I finished my master thesis last week.

At this link you can download the digital appendix: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8713423/CD.zip

Thanks for following this blog and my project.

Best regards,
Benjamin

Final Presentation

After a little break of editing and preperation here now the final presentation:

Final Presentation Master on Prezi

Elements to support the social live at HESTIA

The following table shows the elements of HESTIA which support the social life within HESTIA. 

Some of them are avaible 24/7, others just once a year. With this mixture and some regular highlights the social component of HESTIA is stronly supported.

Element	Function	Virtual	Real life	1 to 1	Group
Facebook group	Chat, share updates, links, pictures, events	+	-	+	+
HESTIA live	Meeting other members at travelling.	-	+	+	-
Playing Saturday	Loose meeting were people can play online games together. Brings team together, fun, get-to-know-eachother while playing	+	-	-	+
Live conference	Real member conference with seminars, discussion, networking	+	+	+	+
Internet Day	Virtual member conference with teamsimulation, webinars, discussions, networking,	+	-	+	+

Do you have other ideas how members can get involved in HESTIA to transfer the pub visit after a match into the online world?

Results Focusgroup

Why a focus group?

For the development for new products focus groups are a fast way to get a first impression about the users opinion. In a focus group 4-8 people discuss about a new product or concept. Usually not only one session, but different sessions with different people are hold, depending from the design of the focus group. In case of HESTIA the focus group is a single category design which means that there is only one type of group, not a comparison of different groups (Morgan, 1997, p. 60f). 

Caused by the limits of a master thesis only one session was run at April 19, 2011. The session was moderated by myself. With only little experience it turned out that some questions were to wide and did not support the discussion very well. Also it was hard to show the concept and moderate at the same time. But still there is a lot information and feedback out of this 30minute session.  

Important for the success of a focus group is the choice of the participants. They have to fit into the later target group of the concept. The focus group of HESTIA is international (Irish, Chinese, German, USA), aged between 20 and 40 and all participants have expirience with virtual teamwork.

The participants

The participants were Faith, Chinese, who is a researcher in CIT. He uses no facebook, but a chinese aquivalent. Sean, Irish, is mobile application developer and software assistant for Cork’s radio station “life fm”. He uses facebook, but very carefully because of its data policy and security aspects. Oskar from Germany is student of computing and networking and uses facebook and twitter for private communications. And finally, Eric from the USA who is senior process development engineer was part of the group. He uses facebook “not too often” for private issues, in the business context his company uses more document based collaboration tools.

The focus group was designed after the concept of Krueger & Casey (2000, p. 43ff), after an opening question to get a good atmosphere, the transition question leads to the key questions, the topic of the focus group. At the end the participants should summarize what they think about HESTIA.

Discussion

The feedback is devided in four categories: questions, suggestions. weaknesses, strength,

Questions

One issue which is mentioned twice was about the roles which users can have. What if someone opens a new topic, would he be responsible for it? (11:00min & 15:05min).

Another questions was if HESTIA is free or if the members have to pay. As the focus group couldn’t see a great advantage the wouldn’t pay for HESTIA. Maybe sponsoring of a company could be a solution to enable free HESTIA memberships.

The third big questions concerned the media solution of HESTIA. Why is there a facebook group (18:55min)? Is this really an advantage or is it more confusing to have another platform and homepage to visit?

Suggestions

As the weren’t mentioned in the concept the discussion came to communication issues. One point was, that if a topic is discussed a lot in a forum, a live chat would be needed. (13:50min). Also phone conferences via skype or a browserbased alternative could be a solution for the focus group (15:30min). The focus group confirms the communication concept that is already developed.

To organize the expertise in different fields better expert should define themselves in the registration process (18:22min). That enables other members to ask very specific questions to a small group of experts instead of the whole group where it may stay unanswered (14:40min). Fields of expertise could be software or tools, chinese market, video conferencing, ect..

Concerning the international perspective of HESTIA language barriers are seen as a problem. Faith mentioned, that in China and other Asian countries english is not very common. Sean suggested an automatic translation tool (20:03min), whereas Faith preferes a real translator when speaking with a Japanese contact (22:00min). This ideas both can hardly be realised, but if automatic translation really working at some stage it would be worth to implement it. Also different language versions of the HESTIA homepage could open the door to new markets and countries.

Another suggestion for the possibilities of HESTIA was a kind of idea-section, where members can scratch new ideas, post them and get immidately feedback from others (23:20min). This will enable HESTIA to develop new possibilities in virtual teamwork and expiriment with those at a very early stage.

As alternative use of HESTIA Eric created the idea that if two companies in different countries start to work together, HESTIA could support the collaboration in both, business context on the one hand, but also the private exchange and get-to-know-each-other on the other hand (25:00min).

Weakness

The greatest weakness of HESTIA is the missing value. Is there really a benefit (7:55min) or would it not just be easier to google the questions which are discussed in HESTIA (24:02 & 26:25min).

The motivation, an important factor when using clubs, was not clear to the focus group. It is hard to be better then the whole internet, even if there are experts (compare classical enzoclopydia and wikipedia). 

The combination of forums and live chats with experts could solve this problem, but still it is difficult to convince people to discuss in the club.

Strength

As strong points the media solution with the combination of moodle, the homepage and facebook to keep in contact outside of the official meetings was seen as a good concept (22:50min). It brings the different communication tools together (25:28min) which allows fast and clear communication.

What is a focus group? - Information for tomorrow

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_group)


I will introduce the concept of a virtual club, a club meeting online with members from all over the world and I want to hear your opinion about it. 
There will be no audience, we will be 4-8 people and you can discuss and criticize the concept in the group. 


The whole discussion will be recorded that I can analyse it.


We meet tomorrow, Tuesday, 6pm at the front of the Library at CIT campus, which is here: 

If you have any questions feel free to ask, my mobile number is 089 434 7862


See you tomorrow,
Benjamin

Volunteers for focus group needed

On Tuesday, 19th of April, 6pm I plan a focus group in the CIT (Cork, Bishopstown) to get feedback about my project.

I will introduce you my concept and after that there will be a group discussion about it.

Workload will be about 30minutes.

Please send me an email to oblaender@gmx.de or a text to 089 434 7862 if you want to participate.

What is it about? I plan a concept for a foundation of a virtual club for project managers. Meet others online and discuss current topics in virtual teamwork, get to know each other and make contacts all over the world.

Current State Presentation April

2011_04_08_CurrentState_oblaender