The emergence of a system of collaboration

If we are to approach the creation of an e-business from the aspect of the infrastructure rather than the business idea, we have to know what we are looking for. This is difficult to formulate in the rapidly changing, noisy environment of the Internet, so it is best that we return to the environment of film and television program making, to see how infrastructures evolve there.

The role of the auteur kind of film director did not come into its own until the competitive pressures of television imposed too much of a burden on the large movie making studios. Just like those early nickelodeons, television demanded a continuous change in content. Television however, devours content at a vastly greater rate. It isn't sufficient to change television programs once a week, or, even once a day: programs have to be changed continuously throughout every day, requiring a huge variety of different kinds of content.

The large studio system could probably have handled the volume, but, it was completely out of its depth when it came to supplying the variety. Competition between many different television channels exasperated the problem, creating a demand for volume and variety that was totally beyond the capabilities of the big studios to provide efficiently.

This demand was recognised by many entrepreneurs who saw the opportunities for combining ideas, talent and specialist skills with sources of finance to create novel productions. As with the auteurs, the skills of an entrepreneur are hard to specify or formulate. Somehow, out of nothing, they have to create an environment where many complementary functions come together in a collaborative association to create a product. By its very nature, the making of a film or a television program is fraught with risks and uncertainties, yet, the entrepreneur must create an atmosphere of confidence that enables a production to take place.

If we can capture the essence of the way in which these entrepreneurs work, we may be able to work out an appropriate strategy for establishing a personal niche in the somewhat similar environment of the world of e-business. - where similar opportunities are available for any entrepreneur who can combine inspiration with technology and get it supported with suitable funding.

The fact that entrepreneurial activity was successful in answering the gargantuan needs of television is self evident. A myriad of different production companies came into existence, specialising in a huge variety of television content. The many common needs of these production companies created openings for speciality niche services to make their appearance. Dedicated companies were set up in every possible aspect of film and program making, whose services could be called upon by any production company that didn't have the resources to set up their own speciality departments. In the space of a few years, any entrepreneurial auteur, could plan and make a film using a range of expertise and facilities previously available only to the film directors employed by large studios.

As more and more film and program productions came on stream, the demand for niche specialist services increased. This created duplication of services, which in turn led to competition between the niche specialists. Specialists were in competition with each other to get work and acquire reputations. This competitive pressure had the effect of making these speciality services far more competent than the same services available, in-house, to the big studios, where the employees did not have any 'live or die' pressures to excel at their work and keep up with latest developments.

This splitting up of all the specialities involved in film and program making into independent services greatly increased production efficiencies. There was no longer any need for an organisational level to integrate the production of many films to ensure all departments had consistent work loads. Speciality services could be hired as needed: hired only for the time needed for them to complete their functions.

This fragmentation of the film and program production into components, spreads the responsibility for efficiency and progress throughout the various service organisations involved: each niche speciality group being responsible for its own efficiency and direction of specialisation and learning.

This situation has many similarities with that of a collaborative learning environment. Taking each niche group as a single unit (because it will be expected that the individual members in a group will have a common mind set through being organised around a cooperative team structure), it can be seen how each unit will act and think differently and independently of any other. The niche groups will not have to have a common goal because they will be focussing only on their limited area of speciality as it is needed by the auteur. This means that although different units might be collaborating in the process of making a production they have no need to cooperate with each other, except perhaps at a basic logistical level.

From a creative director's view point, this system of film and program making is far superior to the organisational framework of a large studio. The director's scope for innovation and novel interpretations is not handicapped by the restraints of a system designed to optimise the work load of a fixed number of permanent employees. The director does not have to work with allocated teams who may have questionable knowledge or technical abilities. The director is free to select particular expert technologists and specialists on demand - and be reasonably confident that any particular aspect of a production will be competently handled. In other words the director is freed, to work at a higher level of organisation - the creative level - in the production of the film or program.

Film making thus changed: from being the sole province of the large studios with their managed teams of cooperative employees, to a system that involved the bringing together of a number of different specialist individuals and groups to collaborate on a production under the direction of a principle auteur.

This is more similar to the situation we now have in the world of e-business, where a collaboration between independent specialists is more effective and efficient than teams of cooperative employees, organised and managed in-house.

It is through seeing e-business solutions as systems, assembled by entrepreneurs and made up of independent specialists collaborating under the direction of auteurs, that can provide the appropriate mind set for thinking about creating a personal niche in the world of e-business.