Education Process with Rizzoma

Here is a story about how Rizzoma can be used for scientific research and education. The example comes from the group Integrative Systems Biology (isbgroup.eu), which is situated in Linköping, Sweden. The group includes approximately 15 people, but many more people are involved in the usage of Rizzoma, since they are using it for collaborations with other groups, both in Sweden and abroad.

An interesting comment related to biology and the theory of evolution is that ‘Rizzoma’ is just the botanic term ‘rhizome’ spelled a bit differently.

Here is what they have to say about Rizzoma.com

Topics can handle everything from daily communication, to the creation of important documents

Rikard Johansson:
One part of our usage of Rizzoma topics is for ordinary daily communication. We have replaced much of our emailing with topics, and there are tons of advantages with that. Secondly we can structure projects, common texts, and also do "wiki-like" topics, with documents, images, links etc. included. An important advantage is to be able to this in one client.

Gunnar Cedersund:
Yes, we use it for common documents about discussions such as 'What to think about when starting in our groups', 'Practical tips and good functions regarding matlab', etc. All of these are important documents that we use all the time in our group, and where everybody enters new vital information as things change or as new information is discovered.

Example. Evaluation of a course

Gunnar Cedersund:
A few weeks ago, it was time for us to do the examinations in a course we had been giving. It was a project course, which involved me as course leader, and 8 different groups and supervisors. The examination had quite a number of phases, involving for

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example oral presentations, written reports, meetings with a 'customer', the creation of a logo, etc. To keep track of all these things, including dealing with practical issues that occurred, we did this via a wave. I, as the group leader, simple started the wave writing a few things, which basically was a first version of the top view. Then we took turns to fill in the details, change the top-view, replace discussions about various issues with summaries, etc. The current and almost final top-view now looks like this:

And as you can see, the top-view is easy to understand and overview. Beside each item there is a little plus-sign. By clicking on these signs, you get a more expanded version of that item. So, for example, if you expand the item 'Reports', the following view appears:

As you can see, I have here asked the supervisors to upload the latest version of the reports as they get them in. They might add some comments or questions for me (as general course examiner) and then everybody else can see these, my answers, and they can comment too. In this sense, we can all contribute to a single document, where all the information is available, and where everybody easily can keep track of how things are progressing, and also check individual documents, etc.

At another point in the wave, we had a practical problem. For the presentation day, we needed poster holders, upon which the students could attach their posters. The first thing that happened was that I said that we need this, but didn't know where to get it. Then somebody said they knew where, but didn't have time to do it. So somebody else said they could, but needed help carrying. In that sense, they could communicate about these details in a chat-like manner—where the conversation is easy—where it doesn't disturb everybody else, as it would have in a reply-all email dialogue, even though everybody is informed about the progress, and where the end-result (who will do it and how) is there for all to see in a summarized form in the end.

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Thanks for your time and for telling interesting case. We wish you enjoy using the service and new exciting insights in researches!

Vladimir @kobzevvv,
Simon @funkfeller
Rizzoma team

P.S. Are you researcher? Try Rizzoma.com for you study, it can be usefull.