Group
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In any project or organisation the total number of members are always able to be divided into a hierarchy of sub-groups such as departments or roles. This hierarchy is always changing (hence the term "organic"), because although many of the groupings are very static like the departments and roles, some of them are constantly changing such as members of particular projects or people sharing a common interest. We use the term "ontology" instead of just "hierarchy" because this structure of groups reflects the high-level reality of the organisation at any given time.
Each group has it's own home page, or "portal" which is tailored specifically to the needs of its members, firstly by being based on a template that matches the type of group it is (such as a department or a project), and secondly because it's members can collaborate together on how their portal should look and what tools and resources should be available to them.
Some common tools used by such groups are blogs, forums, wiki pages, mailing lists, group decision-making tools (such as polls), project management tools, shared schedules, resource booking systems and online chat systems.
Group types
There should be different types of Organic Group which all work the same way, but have specific layouts and collections of tools. Such types represent the major concepts such as Organisation, Role, Project or Campaign. As well as acting as a container for tools and resources and exhibiting various members, these groups should also have their own data fields and views so that they can be searched for and accessed from various contexts.
Collaboration
The tools that are selected and the way they're laid out should be able to be published as a template option so that it's an available option for others to use. These options should be able to be searched by popularity and other properties so that people can see which portal methodologies are being most widely used in within particular contexts. Publishers should be able to includes notes about their decisions so that others can make informed decisions about their choices.
Splitting and merging
Groups should be able to divide in separate groups, or merge multiple groups into a single group, as well as be able to create sub-groups. For example if a group decision is unable to be resolved, the group could split into two, or an group representing an organisation may wish to create sub-groups representing various departments and further into projects or roles. Note that Roles are a separate concept, but roles may like to have an Organic Group for themselves as a common portal catering to their specific needs.
