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Jordan-Webb is a management advisory services firm helping clients with globally and locally distributed work groups use the world-wide-web for collaboration, knowledge capture and decision making. The firm brings value to clients by eliminating the constraints of space (where team members are located) and time (when team members can participate). The firm accomplishes this by providing clients with:access to a web-based collaborative environment methods and techniques to map work processes into the environment facilitation to manage processes designed for the environment training to transfer the knowledge, skills, abilities to clients mentoring and coaching to share experience and wisdom with clients strategies for deploying the environment throughout the enterprise The firm also provides group facilitation services that include working with groups: in traditional face-to-face enviroments - where all participants are at the same time and place; in distributed environments - where participants may be at different places but at the same time; and in virtual environments - where participants may be at different times and at different places Other services include survey design & administration, focus group design & moderation, management consulting, public speaking, facilitator mentoring & coaching, product sales and training for the facilitation toolset and and website development. Jordan-Webb's client experience includes National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), McDonald's Corporation, GATX Corporation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), BP Amoco Corporation, GD Searle, Baxter Healthcare, GE Railcar Services, Commonwealth Edison, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), Fel-Pro, Cardinal Health, Bergen-Brunswig, University Healthcare Consortium, Federal Reserve Bank (Chicago), Ameritech, Kemper Insurance, Argonne National Laboratory, Motorola, Loyola University, De Paul University. Jordan-Webb has also performed pro bono community outreach work for the Chicago Wilderness Coalition, Tutor/Mentor Connection, Cabrini Connections, Teen Think Tanks of America, and for the Common Ground for Pro Life/Pro Choice. Paul Collins founded Jordan-Webb in 1981 to develop management information systems for the pharmaceutical and insurance industries. In the late 1980s the company began the move away from 2nd and 3rd generation programming languages and towards more structured methods of system development. Jordan-Webb became the U.S. distributor for one of the most innovative Computer-Assisted Software Engineering (CASE) tools ever developed - EXSYS. The New Zealand developers of EXSYS succeeded in creating a development environment that used concepts from Artificial Intelligence that allowed non-technical business analysts to build working systems using jargon-free statements in a natural language - English. This innovative approach created operating systems from specifications, without any form of a "computer programming language". This experience with technology and people confirmed the company's belief and understanding that: 1) the most critical (and least costly to change) steps in a system development cycle were in the requirements analysis and design specification phases; and 2) the quality of delivered systems would be dramatically improved if the expertise and experience of the (often) non-technical users, owners and customers of these systems were captured by the technical analysts and designers; and 3) facilitated, interactive sessions would be the best place for the technical and non-technical stakeholders of a system development project to discuss and resolve issues concerning the requirements of and design for a system. In a planned but dramatic shift in 1990, the firm changed its focus from developing software to facilitating the development of system requirements and design specifications for management information systems. Since this shift in direction, the company has consulted and facilitated in many other non-technical areas, including strategic planning, marketing research, leadership development, project management, organizational development, human resource management, work re-design/re-engineering and process improvement. The principles of facilitating divergent stakeholder groups into teams that can build consensus on difficult issues and decisions remain a constant regardless of the environment. A strong desire to improve the operation of and deliverable work products of facilitated sessions led to an interest in developing innovative group management techniques and integrating them with a specialized type of groupware known as group support technology. Jordan-Webb provides sales, training and deployment support for: Mindsights - facilitated thinking tools, developed by Nth Degree Software (Milwaukee, WI) WebIQ - intenet-based groupware for decision support, developed by WebIQ, LLC (Silver Spring, MD) GroupSystems - meeting room groupware for decision support,developed by GroupSystems.Com (formerly Ventana Corporation) (Tucson, AZ). Paul Collins (founder) was an undergrad in Germanic Languages & Literature and Economics at the University of Chicago. Paul has lectured and presented seminars on facilitation, collaboration and other subjects for Graduate Business Schools at the University of Chicago, Loyola, De Paul, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Wisconsin (Madison). He is a member of the Board of Advisors for Loyola University's Center for Information Management and Technology (CIMT) (Chair Academic Committee) and is an instructor in the University of Wisconsin (Madison) Executive Education Program. Paul has been a presenter at the Annual International GroupSystems Conference, Face To Face Technology Symposium, Midwest Facilitators' Network, Southwest Facilitator's Network, International Association of Facilitators Annual Conference, National Black MBA Annual Conference and the Structured Techniques Association Conference. Paul is active in many professional organizations including the Midwest Facilitators' Network (Co-Founder, Director), International Association of Faciltiators (IAF), American Management Association (AMA), Midwest Society of Professional Consultants (MSPC), and the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) (Lifetime Member). Paul is an accomplished caller of traditional American square and contra dances and an instructor of ethnic folk dance. He is the funder and director of Ethnic Dance Chicago and co-director of the Door County Folk Festival, which for over 2 decades has been one of Midwest's most popular and enjoyable ethnic folk dance and music festivals.