Collaboration

When faced with the choice of learning new technology and chatting to colleagues on the phone and email to get a job done, if it can be done with what they already know they will go with that; Collaboration tools work best when your collaborators are geographically distributed and in other time zones and I wonder how many teams have that as a situation? Sure, globalisation is spreading and small, nimble operators are connecting using these tools, but how many large corporations are active users? I know IBM is and I would imagine technology firms would be at the vanguard. I was surprised however when PriceWaterhouseCoopers consultants arrived in IBM because there were unfamiliar with collaboration tools and disinterested in using them. It works best when all the collaborators are equally enthusiastic and capable in using the tool. It just takes a handful of influential members of a team to stop using the tool for the tool to be abandoned. The majority of people in organisations are baby boomers (I'm not sure this is true) and haven't been brought up in environment using collaboration tools. I was in a pub the other day meeting our complexity group and I overheard a small group of people in their 20s and 30s talking about the MySpace interactions. These people already know how to use the tools and will expect them in the workplace.

The most robust definition (and the most commonly cited) seems to be found in Barbara Gray's Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems. She describes collaboration as "a process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of what is possible."[5] In Collaborative Leadership, David Chrislip and Carl Larson offer a slightly different but also useful definition: "It is a mutually beneficial relationship between two or more parties who work toward common goals by sharing responsibility, authority, and accountability for achieving results."[6]

The Open Project is the inspiration of Dmitriy Rybnikov and his Moscow based "Sound Space" studio. The goal of the project is to unite young and skilled music professionals from around the world. Dmitriy invites talented lyricists, vocal artists, and musicians to collaborate and create music together. Through working together, members will capitalize on the best of everyone's skills. Members may also receive the support of the successful producers from Dmitriy's studio.

1) There are lots of stuff that overlaps with other content management issues, so it would be better if I didn't have to use a seperate system for project management 2) These systems also seem to be very modular, and I have noticed that a few components that would be required for this type of site somewhat exist for Drupal already, but nothing to tie a bunch of it together.

 Open issues for research/thinking on communitie

word 'community' and use and study the term collective action

Imagine the complexities of modern communications condensed into a seamless experience with one address book, one voice mail, and one login across every mode of communication. That's what Microsoft is doing. We're combining e-mail, IM, voice, and video into a single, intuitive system built around people, not technology. And we're building it all into the Microsoft Office system the world knows and trusts. Companies will replace conflicting systems with a single, unified communications platform that leverages their existing data and telecommunications infrastructure. IT departments will deliver more flexible, more secure communications, with simplified infrastructure that streamlines management and reduces total cost of ownership. People-centric, integrated, secure communications that's the promise of Microsoft's vision for unified communications.

The architecture of cooperation: managing coordination costs and appropriation concerns in strategic alliances.

What Is Collaboration? Wood and Gray say that each definition of collaboration used in the articles reviewed has at least one important element missing. They say that any definition must be able to answer the following: Who is doing what, with what means, toward what ends? "This leads us to create the following revised definition," they write: Collaboration occurs when a group of autonomous stakeholders of a problem domain engage in an interactive process, using shared rules, norms, and structures, to act or decide on issues related to that domain. Stakeholders may have shared or differing interests in a problem domain, and these interests may change over time. Some degree of autonomy is required, or else stakeholders "merge" rather than "collaborate." Rules for governing interactions must be implicitly or explicity agreed upon. Acting or deciding is needed to reach a common objective. The domain is the issue or set of issues that stakeholders are interested in, such as local traffic congestion or a nation's economic health. Wood and Gray say that this definition is general enough to include a wide array of collaborative forms but specific enough to exclude others, such as blue ribbon panels that never meet, corporate mergers, and clubs that have no specific problem-solving objectives. The authors next discuss the other 3 issues confronting a comprehensive theory of collaboration.

How is a Community Built Through Social Capital? > What is social capital? Why is it important in building a community? A group of researchers present a "ladder of community building" that shows how strong communities are built up from the social capital contained in face-to-face interactions. >

The complete web whiteboard. Just start skrbl, give out your URL and instantly share online. Use skrbl to collaborate with others or, keep it your own private web space. Write notes, sketch drawings, upload pictures, share files... Everyone sees the same screen, Everybody stays on the same page.

“Basecamp is so simple you can't do anything wrong. It's addictively easy-to-use.” -Robert Hof, BusinessWeek