Selected Work Highlights

In 1978 they coined the now popular term groupware, defining it as a whole system of intentionally chosen group process plus software to support it. Groupware is one of the fastest growing segments of the corporate software market. Long before others in the field, they emphasized that trust, mutual respect, and healthy organizational and community culture are the keys to effective group work via computer.

Their current work includes acting as thinking and learning partners with organizational clients and weaving a collaborative inquiry on Practicing Our Wisdom Together in Cyberspace.

In 1986 they founded Awakening Technology to further their action research, developed their own tailorable groupware system, and used it for innovative on-line self-development seminars and other activities. They published research on ways of creating high-trust on-line "safe spaces," plus a new theory of groupware embodying the emerging world view that we are dynamically interconnected in living systems.

They have published popular articles, professional papers, and chapters in several books. They have keynoted international groupware conferences in Japan and the United Kingdom. Their work has been featured in the BBC-TV documentary Goodbye Gutenberg, on NBC-TV’s Today Show, in The Wall Street Journal, The Baltimore Sun, Christian Science Monitor, OMNI, New Age Journal, In Context, TIME, and their local press.

They are Research Affiliates of the Institute for the Future, Fellows of the World Business Academy and the Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan, and members of the Institute for Creative Development and the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Groupware and Organizational Change

• Collaborated with PricewaterhouseCoopers to discover ways of using collaborative digital storytelling for developing their knowledge strategy (1999)
• Consulted with the Institute for the Future on the intersection of sustainability and information technology (1998-1999)
• Presented "Seeing Wiser in 3D: New Dimensions and Strategic Questions" at the Institute for the Future's Outlook Project Exchange, "Beyond Knowledge Management: A Strategic Conversation on Evolving Organizational Knowledge: (1997)
• Collaborated on the design for the Institute for the Future's Outlook Project Exchange, "Beyond Knowledge Management" (1997)
• Consulted with McKinsey & Co. on knowledge mapping (1997)
• Presented "Virtual Company, Real Community?" at The DiBianca-Berkman Group's July Conference, Lincoln, NH (1997)
• Consulted with Coopers & Lybrand on virtual communities in business (1997)
• Consulted with Procter & Gamble on using intranet groupware for knowledge creation and innovation (1997)
• Consulted with Avery Dennison on extranet virtual community design issues (1997)
• Presented "Growing Intranet Knowledge Communities" at the Pacific Northwest Regional HR Roundtable, Wilsonville, OR (1997)
• Presented "Telecommunities for Conversations That Matter" at the Institute for the Future's Outlook Project's The Transformation Exchange at EDS: Life at the Intersection of Technology, Organizations, and Meaning, Dallas (1996)
• Designed and convened the Awakening Technology Community of Inquiry and Practice, a five-month collaborative exploration of conversational practices in cyberspace (1996)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Electronic Workplace Communities With Spirit" at the National Organization Development Network Conference, Seattle (1995)
• Presented the keynote address "Into the Future: The Whole Person Workplace" at the Work/Family Northwest Conference, Seattle (1995)
• Presented "Knowledge Creation Via Computer Network" to a Japanese study tour group organized by the Japanese Information Service Industry Association (1995)
• Presented and facilitated a deliberation on "Cyberspace and STS" at the Socio-Technical Systems Roundtable, Charleston, SC (1995)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Virtual Organizational Learning Infrastructures" at the Systems Thinking in Action Conference on Building Organizational Learning Infrastructures, Boston (1995)
• Convened roundtable keynote presentation on "Which Comes First, Groupware or the Learning Organization?" at GroupWare '95 San Jose (1995)
• Collaborated with the Institute for the Future’s Outlook Project on spiritually principled practices in business and their application to groupware and new organizational patterns (1995)
• Designed and presented a workshop in the organization development track on "Humanizing Distributed Electronic Meetings," at GroupWare ’95 Boston (1995)
• Conducted pilot projects with the Volunteers of America using Lotus Notes to improve lateral communication within the organization’s geographically dispersed branches and agencies (1994-95)
• Presented the keynote address, "Using Our Differences Creatively: Groupware for a Small Planet," at the Groupware Frontiers Conference, Tomorrow’s Organisation Event, London (1994)
• Designed and presented a hands-on professional development workshop on "Human Systems Foundations of Groupware in the Learning Organization" at the Human Systems Development Professionals Spring Conference (1994)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "A Whole-Systems View of Groupware" for the Antioch University Seattle program on Organizational Change and Renewal (1993)

• Consulted with the National Organization Development Network on the selection of a computer conferencing system for their membership, including pilot tests (1994-95)
• Designed and facilitated the TelePax project, a dialogue via computer conferencing among people with diverse points of view on issues related to peace, sponsored by Generations for Peace (1991)
• Conducted action research (design, programming, on-line facilitation, curriculum development, and evaluation) through the Awakening Technology Virtual Learning Community using tailorable groupware to focus and shape group energy and attention using "living systems" principles (1987-91)
• Conducted action research (design, programming, on-line facilitation, and evaluation) on how to create high-trust environments for collaborative work and self-development education via computer (1987-91)
• Designed a tailorable full-featured conferencing system for Groupware Systems, Inc. (1985-86)
• Designed, developed, and facilitated the use of +TOUR, an interactive hypertext on the Electronic Information Exchange System (EIES) on alternative futures and natural resource issues with preference voting; for the US Department of Agriculture; in collaboration with Robert Theobald (1979-80)
• Designed, developed, and facilitated the use of +TERMS, a group dictionary on EIES for the JEDEC project (1979-80)
• Collaborated on the design and developed and documented the +TOPICS information exchange system on EIES under NSF funding, first used by state legislative research units and then other groups; was the prototype for Participate conferencing system; with Participation Systems Inc. (1978-80)
• Acted as co-principal investigators on an NSF-funded project to facilitate and evaluate the use of EIES by the Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) for setting standards in the microelectronics industry (1978-80)
• Coined the term groupware while experimenting with various tailored communications structures, working with Murray Turoff and S. Roxanne Hiltz using EIES at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (1978); published original groupware paper in 1981

• Facilitated two sessions for the Institute for Alternative Futures using Council (tm), software for electronic meetings, one on health care futures within federal agencies and one on home health information systems in the next 20 years (1994)
• Facilitated a multi-stakeholder session for Access Media, using the Council (tm) meeting software and electronic keypad polling, to launch their educational campaign on the National Information Infrastructure (1994)
• Facilitated a committee meeting for the Oregon Progress Board, using Council (tm), to brainstorm needs, criteria, and marketing strategies for a state-wide benchmarks information and communications system (1994)
• Facilitated two workshops using Council (tm) on "Electronic Meeting Support for Civic Dialogue" (1993)
• Collaborated on the design of an Interactive Group Preference Aggregator on EIES for research in group ranking via computer conferencing; with Murray Turoff and others (1980)
• Collaborated on the design and programming of Cognograph, an interactive computer graphics system for policy capturing, a technique for negotiating tradeoffs among multiple, multi-attribute scenarios; Peter’s work at the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado (1973)

• Consulted with the Fetzer Institute on virtual community design and facilitation issues to support their "Courage to Teach" formation program for teachers on line (1997)
• Designed and presented two workshops for the Enhanced Learning Through Electronic Communities (ELTEC) project, one on an overview of community problem-solving processes and groupware technologies, and one with a hands-on exploration of groupware systems and a project visioning session (1995)
• Prepared a groupware report on "Computer Conferencing for Collaborative Education" for Antioch University Seattle and the California Institute of Integral Studies (1994)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Building an On-Line Community: Dynamics, Spaces, Participating, and Facilitating," for New Horizons for Learning (1994)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Designing and Facilitating a Virtual Learning Community" for the Antioch University Seattle MS in Management program (1993)
• Developed and taught an on-line course on "Teaching in the Virtual Classroom" for higher education faculty and academic planners in Oregon, sponsored by Oregon ED-NET (1992)
• Taught a faculty workshop on using EIES 2 for on-line courses at Eastern Oregon State College (1992)
• Taught a seminar on computer conferencing and groupware for the graduate program in Business and Management, Marylhurst College (1992)
• Designed and facilitated seven self-development seminars and thirty-five other activities for Awakening Technology’s Virtual Learning Community (1988-91)
• Consulted with the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute at the inception of their International Executive Forum, a two-year educational program for top-level executives who met via computer conferencing (1981-82)

• Presented two workshops on "Bringing Heart and Spirit into Electronic Networks" at the Northwest International Women's Conference, Seattle (1995)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Community Brain/Mind: Computer-Augmented Learning for the Common Good" for the Volunteers and Information Agency, New Orleans (1994)
• Designed and presented a workshop on "Breathing Community Spirit Into the Electronic Global Brain/Mind" for the Findhorn Foundation, Scotland (1994)
• Designed and conducted a presentation on "Groupware Tools for Healthy Civic Life" and a hands-on demonstration of Council (tm) at the Healthy Communities Networking Summit (1993)
• Collaborated with the Community Design Exchange on the development of the Community Partnership Network concept (1993)
• Designed and developed the +RESOURCES database system on EIES for the Neighborhood Information Sharing Exchange; developed a microcomputer interface for off-line work (1981)
• Designed and analyzed an opinion survey of citizen preferences for alternative land-use planning scenarios for the Portland, Oregon Bureau of Planning using policy capturing and cluster analysis (1979)
• Designed a self-documenting process for citizen workshops with group idea generation and ranking of alternatives using the Group Dialog System for electronic voting and group feedback for the USDA National Agricultural Lands Study; in collaboration with the Western Rural Development Center (1979)
• Designed and developed the Neighborhood Information System for neighborhood survey data, developing block system and telephone trees, and community organizing (1978)
• Designed and developed a system for interactive analysis of computer-read feedback ballots for the HUD-funded Community Issues Dialog process in collaboration with the Northwest Regional Foundation and Citizens Response (1976-77)

• Designed, developed, and documented Synapse, the proprietary tailorable groupware system used for Awakening Technology’s action research and services (1987-92)
• Developed a tailored personal computer interface to EIES for the White House Teleconference on Productivity (1983)
• Designed, developed, and documented Microcomputer Information Support Tools (MIST): The Networker’s Electronic Toolchest; an integrated software package for the IBM PC including word processing, telecommunications, and database management of information resources (1981-83)
• Designed, developed, and documented SimTax, a programming language for simulating the effects of changes in the tax structure, for the State of Colorado (1973-74)