"The Banff Centre is an outstanding resource for unlimited debate, discussion, exploration and introduction. Participating in these events has provided me with inspiration, with new collaboration partners and with an overwhelming expansion of my mind.”

      ~ Fee Plumley,
      Production Director, the-phone-book Ltd.
      Manchester, England, U.K. 

When given the opportunity, humans tend to cooperate. Gamers collaborate in order to compete. Youth use wireless devices to create sub-culture and play. Scientists are embracing research collaboration to share knowledge domains. Networked computers are far smarter than individual computers. The Beauty of Collaboration summit posed questions such as: Can we design "architectures of trust"? What is a computer-supported community? How does online differ from parallel physical community? Can machines and software be designed towards an intelligence of collaboration? How does cooperation differ with mobile platforms? Are new kinds of knowledge generated that have not been accessible before? Are there new forms of expression, new identities that result? What can we learn from historical precedents such as chat spaces and role playing environments, media production cooperatives, artists’ collaboration, and scientists’ collaborations? This summit joined some of the world’s best moderators, conveyors, talk show hosts, and on-line educators to share and gain skills.

Fundamental questions which were discussed by artists, designers, social scientists, engineers, and scientists designing and working within collaborative environments included: What kinds of systems and tools can we design to facilitate collaboration? What are the protocols of these? Do needs differ across cultures or disciplines? Can consensus bring about beauty? How do we evaluate cooperative initiatives? Is collaboration always a positive word or value? What about individual achievement?

This summit brought together expertise in computer-supported cooperative work, computer-supported communities, collaborative video conferencing, online discussion, chat and design systems, agent technologies, human computer interface design, distance learning, online moderation, and performance. The Banff New Media Institute welcomed teachers who use online learning systems to educate and built a special skills workshop for participants to work with hands-on. Can participatory cultures be built? This summit was created in collaboration with University of Surrey, School of Human Science.

"The summit provided an excellent opportunity to learn, discuss and investigate possibilities with a wide spectrum of participants, providing many interesting insights and experiences from fields beyond my traditional one."

~ Andrew Kostiuk, Staff Researcher, TRLabs
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

"The Beauty of Collaboration summit was one of the more worthwhile symposiums I have attended. We talked about substantive issues surrounding collaboration and I feel I have new tools to progress with my own work. Further, the energy here has given me newfound inspiration. Finally, I feel we all contributed to the larger body of solutions, tools and information about successful collaborations."

~ Dena Eber
Chair & Associate Professor of Digital Arts, Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio, U.S.A.

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