Collaborative Groups and Working Spaces

Organizing Participation, Discussion, and Shared work

Community Groups and Working Spaces provide the structured environments through which the Commons organizes discussion, knowledge exchange, working activity, events, project development, and restricted collaboration.

They allow participants to engage with shared questions while ensuring that purpose, access, responsibility, confidentiality, moderation, and preservation are appropriately managed.

A Community Group is a defined space for people interested in a shared topic, Critical Issue, field, profession, community, method, place, project, or area of activity.

A Working Space is a more focused environment created for a specific purpose, such as developing a Commission Request, organizing an event, preparing a publication initiative, conducting project coordination, reviewing evidence, supporting a partnership, or undertaking another defined activity.

Groups and Working Spaces should not be treated as interchangeable.

A public discussion group, a member-access thematic group, a time-limited working group, a confidential project workspace, and an event-planning space have different purposes and therefore require different access, governance, moderation, retention, and preservation arrangements.

The Commons administration is responsible for creating, configuring, reviewing, changing, archiving, and closing Community Groups and Working Spaces.

Members and other users with relevant permissions may request that a Group or Working Space be created. The Commons administration will review such requests and determine the appropriate action.

Purpose of Groups and Working Spaces

Groups and Working Spaces enable the Commons to organize participation around meaningful activity without losing clarity, accountability, or appropriate boundaries.

They may be used to:

• Discuss a Critical Issue.
• Exchange academic, professional, community, or practice knowledge.
• Share evidence and resources.
• Form a thematic community of inquiry.
• Develop research needs.
• Prepare a Commission Request or Concept Note.
• Organize an event or learning activity.
• Support a time-limited working group.
• Coordinate an approved project.
• Develop a Journal theme, special issue, or publication initiative.
• Discuss relevant Repository outputs.
• Support a partnership or programme of work.
• Produce a practice resource, toolkit, framework, or guidance.
• Support consultation, peer learning, or public engagement.
• Record decisions, actions, and learning where appropriate.

Every Group or Working Space should have a defined purpose.

It should be possible for a participant to understand why the space exists, who may participate, what activity is expected, what access conditions apply, and how the space relates to the wider Commons.

Types of Community Groups and Working Spaces

The Commons may establish different types of Groups and Working Spaces.

Public Community Groups

Public Community Groups are open spaces for discussion, resource sharing, public learning, and engagement around a topic, Critical Issue, field, practice area, community concern, or other appropriate subject.

Public visitors may be able to read, and in some cases post comments, subject to the stated participation conditions.

Public Groups may contain:

• Topic overviews.
• Public discussions.
• Resource collections.
• Public event information.
• Links to Journal Publications and Repository records.
• Calls for evidence, questions, or contributions.
• Public updates on relevant activity.
• Links to appropriate next pathways.

Public Groups should not be used for confidential project coordination, sensitive data, personal information, commercially restricted material, unpublished sensitive findings, or formal decision-making that requires restricted access.

Member-Access Community Groups

Member-Access Groups are intended for eligible Individual Members, Institutional Members acting through authorized representatives, and other approved participants.

They may support continuing discussion, professional exchange, peer learning, development of ideas, member events, working relationships, and thematic activity that is not appropriate for unrestricted public participation.

Member-access Groups may be appropriate where participants require a degree of continuity, trust, shared standards, or controlled participation.

Membership does not automatically provide access to every member-access Group. Access may depend on the purpose, relevance, capacity, participation requirements, and access conditions of the specific Group.

Working Groups

Working Groups are time-limited or task-focused spaces created for a defined activity.

A Working Group may be established to:

• Develop a Critical Issue.
• Prepare an event.
• Review evidence.
• Develop a Commission Request.
• Prepare a Concept Note.
• Create a practice resource.
• Develop a Journal proposal.
• Support consultation.
• Prepare a partnership proposal.
• Develop training material.
• Undertake a defined piece of collaborative work.

A Working Group should have:

• A stated purpose.
• Defined scope.
• Identified participants.
• A responsible contact or coordinator.
• A timeframe.
• Expected outputs or outcomes.
• Appropriate access conditions.
• A review or closure date.
• A record of how relevant outputs will be preserved or shared.

A Working Group should not continue indefinitely without review. If its purpose becomes ongoing, the Commons administration may determine that it should become a Collaborative Group, be merged with another space, be extended under revised terms, or be archived.

Project Working Spaces

Project Working Spaces support the coordination of approved projects, including Commissioned Research, publication initiatives, partnership activities, events, training programmes, or other authorized Commons work.

A Project Working Space may contain:

• Project background.
• Approved scope and objectives.
• Working documents.
• Milestones.
• Meeting records.
• Decisions.
• Risk and issue logs.
• Review activity.
• Links to final outputs.
• Repository deposit information.
• Closeout and learning records.

Project Working Spaces are often restricted because they may contain draft material, confidential information, participant-related information, data, provider documentation, financial information, unpublished findings, or institutional decisions.

Access should be limited to those with a legitimate and approved role in the project.

A Project Working Space should not be treated as the authoritative public record of a completed project. Final approved outputs should be deposited in the Repository and linked to relevant public Commons pages where appropriate.

Event and Learning Spaces

Event and Learning Spaces support the planning, delivery, and follow-up of events, seminars, workshops, training, conferences, research briefings, community forums, and other learning activity.

They may include:

• Event purpose and programme.
• Registration information.
• Speaker and facilitator details.
• Accessibility arrangements.
• Resource materials.
• Discussion questions.
• Follow-up actions.
• Recordings, summaries, or presentations where appropriate.
• Links to related Critical Issues, Community, publications, and Repository records.

Some Event and Learning Spaces may be public. Others may be member-access, invitation-only, or restricted to participants where confidentiality, safeguarding, capacity, professional development, or other legitimate considerations apply.

Restricted and Controlled-Access Spaces

Restricted or Controlled-Access Working Spaces may be required where an activity involves:

• Personal data.
• Sensitive participant information.
• Confidential project material.
• Research data.
• Provider proposals.
• Unpublished findings.
• Commercially sensitive information.
• Legal advice or contractual documentation.
• Safeguarding concerns.
• Culturally restricted knowledge.
• Security-sensitive material.
• Controlled-access Repository material.
• Formal governance or decision-making.

Restricted access should be granted only where necessary and should be proportionate to the sensitivity of the activity.

The existence of a restricted space may be acknowledged publicly where appropriate, but protected material should not be disclosed.

Creation and Administration

Only the Commons administration may create, configure, rename, merge, archive, close, or change the access conditions of a Community Group or Working Space.

This centralized responsibility helps ensure that:

• Groups and Working Spaces have a clear purpose.
• Existing activity is not unnecessarily duplicated.
• Access settings are appropriate.
• Moderation and coordination are available.
• Privacy, confidentiality, data, ethics, and safeguarding requirements are addressed.
• The structure of the Commons remains coherent and navigable.
• Activity can be reviewed, preserved, archived, or closed responsibly.

Members and users with relevant permissions may request for creation of Groups or Working Spaces through the relevant Community Request process.

The Commons administration may approve, revise, defer, refer, merge, or decline the request.

Requesting for creation of Community Groups and Working Spaces

A request for the creation of Community Groups and Working Spaces should normally identify:

• Proposed title.
• Purpose.
• Scope.
• Proposed type of Community Groups and Working Spaces
• Relationship to an existing Community Groups and Working Spaces, Critical Issue, project, event, publication, or partnership.
• Intended participants.
• Suggested access level.
• Expected activities.
• Expected outputs or outcomes.
• Timeframe.
• Proposed coordinator or responsible contact, where relevant.
• Ethical, privacy, data, confidentiality, cultural, legal, institutional, or safeguarding considerations.
• Resource, technical, accessibility, or moderation requirements.
• Reason an existing space is not sufficient.

The Commons administration may ask for additional information where necessary.

A request should not include unnecessary personal data, confidential information, restricted data, or commercially sensitive material unless a secure route has been provided for that purpose.

Access levels

Every Group and Working Space should have a stated access level.

Possible access levels include:

• Public reading and public contribution.
• Public reading with registered contribution.
• Registered-user access.
• Individual Member access.
• Institutional Member representative access.
• Defined Community Groups and Working Spaces access.
• Project-team access.
• Invitation-only access.
• Restricted access.
• Controlled data access.
• Archived access.
• Metadata-only public record.

Access should be determined by the purpose and sensitivity of the activity, not by convenience or status alone.

The Commons should consider:

• Whether public participation is valuable.
• Whether member continuity is required.
• Whether confidentiality applies.
• Whether personal, sensitive, commercial, or restricted information is involved.
• Whether participants require a safe or protected environment.
• Whether project governance requires controlled access.
• Whether public visibility could create risk or harm.
• Whether a public summary or metadata record should exist even where full access is restricted.

Group and Working Space information

Each Group or Working Space should have a clear introductory record.

The record should identify:

• Title.
• Purpose.
• Scope.
• Status.
• Access level.
• Intended participants.
• Relevant Critical Issues.
• Related Commons pathways.
• Coordinators or responsible contacts.
• Moderation arrangements.
• Participation standards.
• Confidentiality or data conditions where applicable.
• Start date.
• Review date.
• Expected outputs or outcomes.
• Relevant links.
• Contact route for access or support.

This information should be visible to the extent appropriate for the access level of the space.

Roles in Groups and Working Spaces

Different participants may hold different roles.

Participants

Participants contribute to discussion, activities, resources, and learning in accordance with the purpose and access conditions of the space.

Coordinators

Coordinators support the structure, continuity, and development of a Group or Working Space.

They may welcome participants, encourage relevant activity, connect resources, support events, identify next steps, and refer formal matters to the Commons administration or another appropriate pathway.

Coordinators do not automatically hold authority over research, editorial decisions, partnerships, funding, institutional commitments, or governance matters.

Moderators

Moderators support safe, respectful, relevant, and constructive participation.

They may address conduct concerns, off-topic material, spam, harassment, discrimination, unauthorized disclosure, misrepresentation, and breaches of access conditions.

Working-group leads

Working-group leads support the completion of a defined task or output.

They may coordinate meetings, track actions, support participation, and report progress through the agreed route.

Project leads

Project leads may coordinate work within a Community Groups and Working Spaces in accordance with the approved governance arrangements of the project.

Their authority should be defined in project documentation and should not extend beyond the project’s approved scope.

Advisers and contributors

Advisers, contributors, speakers, community representatives, data stewards, and other invited participants may provide defined input.

Their role, access, attribution, confidentiality, and authority should be clear.

Participation standards

All participants must comply with the Commons’ Principles and Values and with any additional conditions that apply to the Group or Working Space.

Participants should:

• Read and respect the stated purpose and scope.
• Use the space only for relevant activity.
• Treat others with dignity and respect.
• Contribute in good faith.
• Attribute the work and ideas of others appropriately.
• Respect confidentiality, privacy, consent, access restrictions, and data conditions.
• Disclose relevant conflicts of interest.
• Distinguish evidence, interpretation, professional judgment, personal opinion, and lived experience where relevant.
• Avoid presenting informal discussion as formal approval, published research, or official Commons policy.
• Avoid harassment, discrimination, plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, misrepresentation, spam, or unauthorized disclosure.
• Raise concerns through appropriate channels.

Participants should not use any Group or Working Space to pressure providers, researchers, editors, reviewers, project teams, partners, funders, or others to produce predetermined findings, decisions, or outcomes.

Information management and preservation

Groups and Working Spaces may contain material with different levels of permanence and authority.

The Commons should distinguish among:

• Informal discussion.
• Draft material.
• Working documents.
• Formal decisions.
• Approved project records.
• Final outputs.
• Published work.
• Repository records.
• Historical or archived material.

Not all material should be preserved permanently or made public.

The Commons administration should determine, in accordance with applicable policy, whether material should be:

• Retained within the Group or Working Space.
• Moved into a restricted archive.
• Deleted after an agreed period.
• Summarized in a public record.
• Deposited in the Repository.
• Linked to a Journal Publication.
• Preserved as part of project closeout documentation.
• Marked as superseded or historical.

Final reports, publications, approved resources, and other citable outputs should normally be deposited in the Repository rather than left only in a discussion or project space.

Review, Change, and Closure

The Commons administration should review Groups and Working Spaces at appropriate intervals.

A review may consider:

• Whether the purpose remains relevant.
• Whether activity is active and constructive.
• Whether access conditions remain appropriate.
• Whether coordination and moderation are adequate.
• Whether the expected output has been completed.
• Whether the space duplicates another Group or Working Space.
• Whether new ethical, legal, data, safeguarding, or institutional considerations have arisen.
• Whether relevant learning, resources, or outputs should be preserved.
• Whether the space should continue, change, merge, archive, or close.

A Group or Working Space may be:

• Under development.
• Active.
• Paused.
• Time-limited.
• Completed.
• Under review.
• Merged.
• Archived.
• Closed.
• Transferred into a project workspace.
• Converted into a Repository collection or other Commons record.

Where practical, affected participants should be informed of significant changes.

When Groups and Working Spaces are working well

Groups and Working Spaces are working well when:

• Users can understand the purpose of each space.
• Public, member, project, and restricted access are clearly distinguished.
• Users can find existing relevant activity.
• New spaces are created only through a responsible administrative process.
• Groups and Working Spaces remain connected to relevant Critical Issues and Commons pathways.
• Participants understand their role, permissions, and responsibilities.
• Confidential, personal, sensitive, and restricted information is protected.
• Coordinators and moderators are appropriately supported.
• Working Groups have defined purpose, scope, timeframe, and outputs.
• Project Working Spaces support accountable delivery without exposing protected material.
• Relevant learning and outputs are preserved appropriately.
• Inactive or duplicate spaces are reviewed, merged, archived, or closed responsibly.
• The Commons remains coherent, navigable, safe, and useful.

Community Roles and Moderation explains the responsibilities of participants, coordinators, moderators, working group leads, advisers, and other role holders, together with the standards and processes that support safe, respectful, constructive, and accountable Community activity.