In this area the preliminary model was quite effective for the initial phase of the projects. It matched well with data about why each partner participated, what they hoped to accomplish, and how they contributed to the collaboration and its results. However, the preliminary model did not fit well with changes in objectives, motivations and contributions over time. We found in the case data that some participants were originally quite reluctant and joined actively only after a project was well under way. Often, this change in willingness to participate was triggered by a phenomenon that one interviewee from the New York case called “me too-ism,” i.e., once the project began to generate benefits for the initial participants, others decided it was safe and desirable to join. In the Quebec cadastre case, a traditional customer-supplier contractual relationship rapidly evolved into a more collaborative mode in the face of imminent failure due to serious technological problems and and policy challenges. In order to overcome those challenges, the Ministry of Natural Resources and DMR shared staff, work processes, and offices, revised roles, and engaged in an intensive joint effort to develop an innovative technological and managerial solution. These important developments cannot be accounted for by considering only the objectives and motives of the partners at the beginning of the project.