Group items tagged

My topic is the collaboration practices of open source software development. OVERVIEW: This article compiles data taken from online OSS-management tool SourceForge, and provides an excellent overview of the features, advantages, and limitations of this particular tool. SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/) is an online tool that facilitates collaboration on Open Source Software (OSS) projects. Among the most significant tools that SourceForge provides are forums discussing each project, a file-release tool, a basic task management system, the ability to post documentation (eg. instruction manuals) online, and the all-important Concurrent Versions System (CVS). This article goes into satisfying detail of how CVS works and why it is advantageous to software developers, explaining the CVS process as follows: 1. CVS holds the current version of a program's source code, and allows developers to 'check out' (i.e. download) this source code so that they have their own version to play around with. 2. Once done, developers can 'commit' (or upload) their changes. If possible, the CVS automatically merges this code with any other changes that have been made since the code was checked out. 3. The CVS system retains a copy of all previous versions of the code, and thus allows reversion to previous versions, as well as the existence of multiple 'branches' of the same source code. The main advantage of the CVS tool is that it "[allows] multiple developers to be working on the source code at the same time without conflict" (p. 6), although teams are may be limited slightly by SourceForge's basic task management system which "lacks capabilities for resource and personnel management" (p. 4). SourceForge is one online tool that greatly aids in the co-ordination of open-source projects. Any software developer considering the use of a pre-made online tool for collaboration would bene

This article elaborates some overviews about data SourceForge which is from online OSS-management tool, with its characters, advantages, and limitations. SourceForge is a very altruistic platform to benefit people for the development of software tools. It is good example of a social networking platform that is geared towards producing collaborative work, which is productive. Its purpose is not entertainment or socializing, but its about bringing together people with specialized skills and providing the framework and tools to allow people to work on a product in a virtual workplace. I don't totally agree by collecting statistics on the software development process,especially one that is non-commercial and can potentially be worked on by any member of the public to be a totally useful study. Software was development which is not a static work flow. There are many standards, development methodologies, languages, platforms, not to mention the human factor that can make interpolation results of the data difficult. However, I strongly believe the success of SourceForge Projects is not the collaborative effort that causes success, but those developers to press ahead and work on their masterpiece. There are some projects that are very successful, but on the whole a majority of the projects are half started and incomplete. There have been many studies in the past to try to quantify the efficiency of Software Engineering and to date. There is no ideal solution to completing a Software Engineering Project. It is still a maturing engineering discipline.

This article reviews SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/) which is an Open Source software (OSS) development tool and provides free services to Open Source developers. By explaining how SourceForge collect, manage and apply activity data, this article points out the strengths and weaknesses of SourceForge as an online collaboration tool. An (2011) comments that the purpose of SourceForge is to bring "together people with specialized skills and [to provide] the framework and tools to allow people to work on a product in a virtual workplace". This feature is similar to Optimize Solutions which is mentioned in one of my selected articles: Optimize Solutions launches to help professional services organizations better manage - projects, resources, expenses. Both SourceForge and Optimize Solutions are collaboration tools with powerful functions for data management and user communication. With their network-based interface, distance is no longer an issue for collaboration and interaction among users. SourceForge deals with data and statistic; and Optimize Solutions manage various business resources, such as documents, images, and spreadsheet. While SourceForge is open for users to develop softwares, Optimize Solutions is used within an organization and external clients for business purposes. Although these two applications offer services in different fields, they both aim at enabling global collaboration and improving processing efficiency. I believe that with the development of information technology, especially online collaboration, such applications will be widely used in most organizations and for personal use. Reference: An, R (2011). Comment on Collection of Activity Data for SourceForge Projects. Retrieve from http://groups.diigo.com/group/curtin_net308?view=recent&page_num=1

This Strategic Guide on instant messaging is developed by ProcessOne, a company that delivers instant messaging services to businesses. The guide examines the real risks associated with instant messaging in corporate environments and explains how to mitigate them. ProcessOne argues that instant messaging is becoming a valuable form of communication in business environment, alongside the telephone and email. IM allows users to see if recipients are available to receive a message, thus it can be a much more efficient communication tool than email and telephone. The report suggests that danger arise when using public IM services like Gmail and MSN. Public IM services have not been designed for corporate activity and do not provide the level of security that is essential in a business environment. The report suggests different risk factors associated with public IM services as well as how businesses can overcome these risks. This guide is important as its attention is on security issues associated with instant messaging. A common concern among companies is that IM programs render their networks vulnerable to viruses and other potentially crippling intrusions (Glasner, J. 2002). ProcessOne suggests that the best way to reduce the risk of instant messaging is to bring IM in-house with the deployment of a central instant messaging server. IT departments can take measures to protect users and intellectual property through the use of encryption, anti-virus software, corporate policy, and domain certificates, thus the risks will be reduced. References Glasner, J. (2002). IM Bans Hush Workplace Chatter. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2002/09/55090?currentPage=1 ProcessOne (2009). Instant Messaging and Security. Retrieved from http://www.process-one.net/resources/research/ProcessOne_Strategic_Guide-Security.pdf

Subject: How online collaboration has affected the software development industry Reference 4 Shared Waypoints and Social Tagging to Support Collaboration in Software Development By Margaret-Anne Storey, Li-Te Cheng, Ian Bull, Peter Rigby (2006) ABSTRACT This paper presents the conceptual design of TagSEA, a collaborative tool to support asynchronous software development. Our goal is to develop a lightweight source code annotation tool that enhances navigation, coordination, and capture of knowledge relevant to a software development team. Our design is inspired by combining "waypoints" from geographical navigation with "social tagging" from social bookmarking software to support coordination and communication among software developers. We describe the motivation behind this work, walk through the design and implementation, and report early feedback on how this lightweight tool supports collaborative software engineering activities. Finally, we suggest a number of new research directions that this topic exposes. (Rigby, 2006) Full document available from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.136.3988&rep=rep1&type=pdf TagSEA software/code available from http://tagsea.sourceforge.net/download.html Bibliography Rigby, P. S., Margaret-Anne; Cheng, Li-Te; Bull,Ian. (2006). Shared waypoints and social tagging to support collaboration in software development. Paper presented at the CSCW'06, ACM http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.136.3988&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Review of article - Shared Waypoints and Social Tagging to Support Collaboration in Software Development This article reviews the development and purpose of TagSEA and gives us an understanding of the technology and why it is useful for software development collaboration. This is software that is designed to allow developers to place collaborative annotations attached to specific locations in source code. This is a professionally written article that looks at both why the software was developed and how it works, including a trial evaluation of the software. It also includes information on what it is written in (java) and what it works as part of (eclipse IDE). The article reviews what it can be used for and includes images displaying the look and feel of the software but does not explain how to use the software itself or provide a link to further information. However research on the internet has provided a link http://tagsea.sourceforge.net to where the software is available. The site where the software is located provides further information on how to use the software and links for downloading it as well as information about further developments. Both the article "Shared Waypoints and Social Tagging to Support Collaboration in Software Development" and the website appear to be written/designed to be read/used by people with technical skills i.e. developers and tends to use a significant amount of specialised terminology. Rigby, P. S., Margaret-Anne; Cheng, Li-Te; Bull,Ian. (2006). Shared waypoints and social tagging to support collaboration in software development. Paper presented at the CSCW'06, ACM Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.136.3988&rep=rep1&type=pdf

The "Old Spice Guy" Campaign has proven to be a game-changer, not only for Old Spice but for social media marketing. Ehrlich points out (2010), such campaigns seek to involve the audience in an immersive experience, essentially making viewers part of the campaign. Since the original campaign advertisement was launched, the campaign reached 40 million views in a week for a total 1.4 billion campaign impressions across all media, including thousands of parody mashups. The campaign has since gone on to increase sales of Old Spice by 107% and even won the Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix in 2010 (the advertising industry's equivalent of winning an Oscar for best film). Arguably, the most interesting and memorable feature of the campaign has been the interactive "Old Spice Responses". Responses was a series of 186 custom-made videos made for fans and celebrities selected from comments from Social Media Sites like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit (Ehrlich, 2010; see also Grant, 2010). These videos posted on YouTube became the basis for a viral campaign that achieved 6,000,000 responses in 24 hours. The true genius behind Wieden & Kennedy's simple idea, as Ehrlich points out (2010), is that it is viewers themselves who are maintaining the campaign's momentum as "viewers to go viral". This marks an important shift as "brands don't make viral videos, users make videos viral." That's exactly what Old Spice achieved." (Ehrlich, 2010). References: Grant, R. (2010, 10 August). 'Wieden+Kennedy's Old Spice Case Study' in We are Social [video] Retrieve 12 April 2010 via http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/08/wieden-kennedys-spice-case-study/ Williams, M. (2010, 26 June). "Old Spice scoops Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix" Retrived 12 April, 2010 via http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1012646/Old-Spice-scoops-Cannes-Film-Lions-Grand-Prix/

My topic is more specifically related to videoconferencing, through the use of software programs such as Skype. But I found this article (and this marketing campaign) interesting as they were combining video technology with a marketing campaign, which was the first marketing campaign of its kind (Taylor, 2010). Video has many advantages including those discussed by Isaacs and Tang (1994), which are connecting people who are geographically dispersed, building motivation, providing visual cues and body language indicators. I think Old Spice incorporated these four benefits of video and utilised them effectively into their campaign. They could have made the responses in text only versions, but this would not have been as impactful or effective. They relied on visual cues and body language indicators to assist in delivering their message. Due this marketing campaign being innovative it helped to motivate consumers who were geographically dispersed into spreading these videos throughout their social networks. However as discussed by Masum, Brooks and Spence (2005), without the use of a high speed Internet connection this campaign would not have been as successful. A high speed Internet connection would need to be in place to upload the video content to its users and also share the content throughout the network. If it was still common for users to have dial up speed Internet connections, they would not have found this campaign as motivating as they would have had to wait for it to download and users may have become uninterested quite quickly. References: Isaacs, E., Tang, J. (1994). What video can and can't do for collaboration: A case study. Multimedia Systems, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pages 63 -73. Masum, H., Brooks, M. and Spence, J. Music Grid: A case study in video collaboration. First Monday. Retrieved on 16 April 2011 from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/rt/printerFriendly/1238/1158

Thanks Mandy, you make an interesting point about the importance of Broadband Internet in the growth and popularity of video as a means of communication. It is sometimes easy to overlook or even overestimate the role of tools and affordances in analysing collaborative projects and events. Rosanna's article "Egypt did not have an Internet Revolution" suggests the role of social media was greatly exaggerated by the media and, in fact, the most important collaborative tool in the recent Egypt uprising was, in fact, face-to-face communication and word-of-mouth.

The authors examine uses of instant messaging in a high-tech firm to illustrate how knowledge workers use this tool to collaborate with co-workers. According to Quan-Haase et al., the objective with the study was to 1) identify the collaborative practices of individuals in mediated work environments by looking at use of IM, 2) discern what social processes are reflected in employees' use of IM, and 3) investigate how visibility, awareness and accountability are used in an IM system. The research found that IM is used extensively to exchange work-related messages, coordinate and arrange meetings, and inquiry about colleagues' availability for discussion. IM was used as much for internal communication as for external communication. The authors also found that IM functions as a barrier in some cases as some employees use IM as a way to create distance between them and their superiors. Quan-Haase et al. suggest that this is particularly useful when difficult decisions have to be made or sensitive topics discussed. Quan-Haase et al. examines how workers in a small high-tech organisation manage their IM use for the purpose of information exchange and collaboration. The article is interesting as it is based on a case study of an actual organisation. However, it is written 6 years ago so employees' willingness to adapt to instant messaging may have changed as collaborative tools are more common today. Still, most of the findings are still applicable today. References Quan-Haase, A., Cothrel, J. & Wellman, B. (2005). Instant Messaging for Collaboration: A Case Study of a High-Tech Firm. Retrieved from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/quan-haase.html

This article is a testimony on how Delicious site is a useful and precious to be treasure as one of the online collaboration tools. The use of Delicious site has become one of author habits in the use of bookmarked stuff that related to usability, social media, collaboration and the like. As one of Delicious user, Smith felt that he was building up a useful resource online, as listed in his blogs, Delicious definitely useful for retrieving items we are looking for or rummaging around other users bookmarks. In relating to RSS feeds, Delicious as well has potential to be an RSS news reader, it is a personal taxonomy which helped users to organize other items such as subscription and connection to other site, as for examples Delicious as well connected and collaborates with hashtags on Twitter. There is one concrete example the use of Delicious, named Horizon Report as a way of working where a group of people share interesting stuff with tags label on short-term, mid-term and long-term, then everyone need to votes on what is been collected. Thus is an interesting way of what kind of aspect organization must focus on in the future. What is more Delicious as well integrates into people's everyday work, with the use of bookmarkets, plugins and so forth, every individual able to mark things of interest and collectively build up useful archive. By looking at this article and author opinions, we have kind of information and other people opinion on how useful Delicious site is. Reference: Smith, T. (2011). The Death of Delicious. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2011/01/02/the-death-of-delicious/

Personally, I found that delicious is useful tool to use. Maybe I didn't found that bookmarking is important after I entered university and has a lot of reading to do. You can bookmark an article and read it anytime you want. Also it's easy to shared to others. The tagging also make your bookmarks arrange well and easy to access. That why I'm disagree with Smith (2011) when he said that he didn't found that the tagging will encourage people to explore more. Tagging makes everything simpler, in my perspective. You don't have to search around any search engine for particular article that you want, you can go to Delicious and sees the available tags. Wouldn't it be easy? I also think that Delicious would be a good collaboration tools, especially in education sectors. Students can exchange information and article, sees how different people have different sources to a specific topic. The closing down of Delicious will be unpleasant thing to have. It means that we going to lose one of the most common bookmarking website that have certain advantages for people. Smith, T. (2011). The Death of Delicious. Retrieved from http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2011/01/02/the-death-of-delicious/

This article mainly highlighting and discuss about the reason and the use of Del.icio.us in terms of social-bookmarking sites, which is called as Del.icio.us lesson. This article mention on how Delicious creates framework named folksonomy - to redefine web navigation, this folksonomy consist of users could tag (their own bookmarks) and navigate them by using direct tag-based interface, hence Delicious will come up with folksonomy for every user on the occasion that Delicious able to aggregate the bookmarks over all users. Potter stated that, "One of the hardest problems in web design is to speak the user's language", therefore by using Delicious along with the folksonomies and tagging features, the web site might be designed and evolved with user's own words. As for the lesson, Potter mentions out a value called personal value precedes network, whereas means as users by the time we build networks of value, as each person on the network we need to find value for ourselves before we contribute to the network, likewise in Delicious where people find their value first and end up with saving their personal bookmarks, in order to find it later they use tags as a patch to their resources and as easy way to locate it. In addition, Delicious able to aggregate tags in terms of find out how worth or value inside other people content. Again, this article has mentioned out one of Delicious specialty, is Del.icio.us tags which provide personal value by the time users uses them to recall back their bookmark links. Furthermore, Potter also commenting and comparing on how Del.icio.us are not the same compare to other sites feature in tags such as Flickr, Danny Sullivan or Search Engine Watch. This article discusses about the specialty of Delicious in terms of sharing and behind the reason of why people chose it. Porter, J. (2006). The Del.icio.us Lesson. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://bokardo.com/archives/the-delicious-lesson/

According to this article, delicious is the world's largest social bookmarking site, in here users are allow to save, manage, and share their pages. This article would be a useful guidance for those who not familiarize yet with Delicious site or find it hard to maximize the use of Delicious's features, in further this article provides simple explanations along with examples on how we as users can use Delicious site in eight innovative ways. This article provides eight innovative ways which emphasize the use of URL and RSS feed in terms of sharing the links and bookmarks. What is more, Hines as the author provides some screenshot which gave illustration and simplifies the explanations rather than explaining merely based on words from the articles. As in further, Hines mentioned out several reason why we as users will consider and find out Delicious is useful in terms of sharing and collaborating online. This is one of valuable resources since it list out the use of Delicious site, thus users will find it as guidance in case they are missing some of the features or might be work as tutorial for the first time users. Not forgot to mention that Hines as well listed out a complete set of Delicious features, including the reason and how the way we use it, which is really helpful to familiarize ourselves with the features provides in terms of expedite the use of Delicious site. References: Hines, K. (2010). How to Use delicious: The King of Social Bookmarking. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-delicious-social-bookmarking/

This is a comprehensive blog entry introduction to the potential of Google Docs as a collaborative tool for students. These potential uses are also valuable in work places or other group work. The value of this resource is the well-written way Wetzel articulates the advantages of Google Docs for collaborative practice. His argument is that such a system, aside from being free, is valuable to go beyond the e-mail sharing culture to a full real-time collaborative environment. Wetzel then proceeds to give examples of the potential for the application of Google Docs in education contexts and classrooms. To summarise, he argues three main points in using Google Docs for collaboration:  The ability for Google Docs to provide instant feedback to students on their work  To conserve expenses on school projects such as printing costs  Encouraging the working together of students on a projects in a systematic and orderly manner The tone of the article is clearly very much in favour of using Google Docs for collaborative practice in educational settings. However, though this may not be an issue in educational contexts, there are disadvantages using Google Docs that are not reported. Two bloggers highlight those weaknesses which may be of concern when trying to use more features in Google Docs that are not there but are part of the Microsoft Office Suite:  The speed of internet connection is vital; if it is slow the collaborator may not be able to keep up with others' postings (Bukisa, 2011)  Most of the time you cannot work offline with Google Docs, you must be online to create and update documents (Creative Marketing Solutions, n.d.) However, the article does put a compelling list of features that make Google Docs a good system to use for educational collaboration.

References Bukisa. (2011). Google Docs review. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.bukisa.com/articles/480255_google-docs-review Creative Marketing Solutions. (n.d.). How to use Google Docs. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://knolt.com/creative-marketing-solutions/2010/10/20/heading-2/ Wetzel, D. R. (2009). Google Docs are a free online educational tool: Web-based productivity software for teacher or student collaboration. Suite101.com. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://www.suite101.com/content/google-docs-are-a-free-online-educational-tool-a105900

The article, Google Docs are a Free Online Educational Tool Written by David R. Wetzel gives a comprehensive overview of the benefits of Google docs specifically in relation to education. The article outlines these positives a few of these include (but are not limited to) the ability to secure the websites content, making it a safe place to upload work, the ability to comment and give almost instant feedback, the ability to update students on deadlines, information, and helpful tools and also to keep course content. It seems that these positives are quite a universal thing as Keith McPherson (2007) explored all of these benefits in his article new online technologies for new literacy instruction. This reminds me of the use of wiki's in education, a tool that is explored by Elisha Petersen (2009) in which the tool is used to do the same. This brings me to question, which is better? Why use one over the other, if they achieve the exact same thing? Wetzel's article doesn't seem to give any suggestion that the tool has anything wrong with it. Something that, in technology, is hard to believe. Keith McPherson, However, outlines a few limitations of the program. He states "the conversion of graphics and tables from a Word document to a Google document is not reliable and Google Docs does not run on older browsers and Safari or Opera" (McPherson, 2007). Ryan Spoon a Principal at Polaris Venture Partners writes in his blog that he decided to use Wikidot (a wiki platform) instead of Google docs, he believes that although Google docs are great for specific documents they "don't scale over time well… more importantly the documents are treated distinctly and ultimately get as cluttered as your computer desktop" so although two tools (wiki and Google docs) can inevitably achieve the same thing, they still work in very different ways, and one has to evaluate the finer details. References Peterson, E.. (2009). Using a Wiki to Enhance Cooperative Learning in

The idea of collaborative video creation and crowdsourcing

This was an engaging article that provided an insight into collaborative video platform Stroome by interviewing its co-founder. Stroom is a relatively new platform that allows individuals to upload video and edit it with multiple individuals from around the world. Stroom is essentially focused on providing a platform for crowdsourced video. Individuals can work on an editing project by themselves or with others. In a nutshell Stroome can be defined as a "collaborative video editing service" (Scott, 2011). This article links well to my topic of crowdsourcing. I am interested in discovering new tools which draw on 'the wisdom of the crowds' and encourage collaboration between individuals from around the world in new and interesting ways. This article interviews the co-founder of Stroome and provides us with an insight into what stroome is about, how crowdsourcing can be utilised through Stroome, and what the future of video uploading and editing is. It is a reliable and useful source if you were interested in Stroome, crowd sourcing, and the potential path video and crowdsourcing are heading towards. Since this tool is relatively new, it provides us with insights into future trends and how crowdsourcing is evolving online and taking advantage of different media forms for a wide range of purposes. According to the article Crowdsourced videos are just beginning to flourish, however they do have a huge potential and provide great opportunities for areas such as citizen journalism. Most recently, "Stroome was used by protesters in Egypt when the government blocked Twitter and Facebook" (Scott, 2011). This quote from the company's co-founder suggests that this platform is also about liberation and spreading details through viral platforms such as Stroome. Overall a useful source in relation to crowdsourcing, citizen journalism, and online collaboration through interactive media platforms. References Scott, J. (2011). Can collaborative online video creation go mainstre

This news article introduces us to a new visual online collaboration called SyncSpace. According to the article, SyncSpace provides real time remote collaboration. The idea behind the application is to connect people remotely to brainstorm and share ideas in a way that can't be done with traditional modes of communicating. The notion that an organisation constantly has to share ideas in a collaborative way is what SyncSpace core functions are based on. In a true collaboration sense, employees in different cities can now use the app to work together on a variety of projects. The app among other things permits multiple users to view and edit the same document in real time from anywhere in the world ("SyncSpace for Android and iPad Revolutionizes Visual Online Collaboration," 2011). As well as working online, SyncSpace provides the functionality to work offline. Working with other online tools, SyncSpace also allows the user to share their documents on Twitter, Facebook and email. This new application will provide small scale organisations the ability to collaborate and share ideas in real time whilst on the move. In the fast paced business world, remote networking is favourable. SyncSpace is part of a new breed of tools created to aid organisations collaborate effectively. Reference: SyncSpace for Android and iPad Revolutionizes Visual Online Collaboration. (2011). Retrieved from Sfgate.com website: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/04/13/prweb8296303.DTL

In today's competitive business environment the difficulties linked to keeping up with new and innovative technologies are momentous. 'ERA Real Estate Launches Technology offering that Mirrors Its Culture of Collaboration' article proves just that by demonstrating how a real estate company is using online technology to communicate and collaborate. The article introduces us to the launch of a new intranet solution by ERA Real Estate. The intranet as stated by the article provides significant corporate social networking functionality that links agents, brokers and companies across America and around the globe to collaborate and share knowledge of the 30,000 members they have so far. One of the features on the intranet is the ability to connect with colleagues within the same environment or different locations. The organisation must have other mobile collaborating tools such as smart phones to track or update listings, managing leads and other tasks commonly associated with Real Estate organisations. The new online intranet provides this functionality as well. This article is among a number of great examples of industries communicating and collaborating online as the means to share knowledge. The new organisation social media website by ERA Real Estate will no doubt open the gate to more innovation and the sharing of knowledge. Reference: ERA Real Estate Launches Technology Offering that Mirrors Its Culture of Collaboration. (2011). 1. Retrieved from RISMedia website: http://rismedia.com/2011-04-13/era-real-estate-launches-technology-offering-that-mirrors-its-culture-of-collaboration/

Convofy wants to go beyond being a private Facebook and Twitter to let companies collaborate around content like web pages, images PDF files, PowerPoint files, Word Files and Excel (Tsotsis, 2011). Convofy claims to be the most private powerful social network enabling organisations to communicate, collaborate and share more easily and effectively than ever before. Convofy combines the functionality of twitter, Facebook and Google Docs. Networks within an organisation can post ideas, links, and files, and their followers can comment on them. Convofy also provides on-the-go communication and collaboration by making it available for mobile phones in the form of application. In a market research conducted by Research and Markets in 2009, organisations viewed applications such as Web, audio, and video conferencing, messaging, and document collaboration as critical components of an effective collaboration strategy ("Meeting the Enterprise Collaboration Challenge: Vital to the Success of the Distributed Organization," 2009). The research then concluded effective collaboration is no longer a "nice-to-have," rather it is a critical requirement for success in the modern economy ("Meeting the Enterprise Collaboration Challenge: Vital to the Success of the Distributed Organization," 2009). Though there have been enterprise collaborative tools launched over the years, Convofy claims to be the powerful. We will just have to wait and see. Reference: Meeting the Enterprise Collaboration Challenge: Vital to the Success of the Distributed Organization. (2009). 1. Retrieved from Business Wire website: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090724005305/en/Research-Markets-Meeting-Enterprise-Collaboration-Challenge-Vital Tsotsis, A. (2011). Convofy Is A Workplace Collaboration Tool Centered Around Documents And Images. 1. Retrieved from TechCrunch website: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/06/convofy-is-workplace-collaboration-centered-around-documents-and-images/

This study by Blau and Caspi is valuable for seeing how using Google Docs in a sharing and collaborating environment has on perceived student learning. The credibility of this study is enhanced by a wide survey of 118 students at an Open University in Israel. Ownership meant the degree to which the student using Google Docs felt responsible to work on and update project documents. This quantitative study also sought to measure the perceived learning and quality of project outcomes students felt were a result of using Google Docs. The implications from the study suggested the importance of owning the document, but also to make sure others knew of changes to the document. A document creator felt they lost ownership of the document when editing was done on it. They became the reader of the document. Such a change in hierarchy shows the importance of communicating changes done on Google Docs to every team member. A second implication was that the value of the document seemed to increase when more revisions was done. This suggested that more work on the document resulted in a more credible and trustworthy document as the project document was improved towards its final presentation. In fact most survey respondents seemed to not think the document got worse as more things were added to it. Overall, there was a correlation between document quality and revision, with Google Docs being perceived as quite effective in producing trustworthy documents which add to the learning process. The researchers' main advice from the study is that revising documents and suggesting improvements is far more effective than editing another's documents. Whilst this is not always possible it does suggest the importance of communication in the collaboration process. Google Docs is not a passive collaboration media; therefore, care in making sure all team members communicate changes is vital to a much better collaboration process.

References Blau, I., & Caspi, A. (2009). What type of collaboration helps? Psychological ownership, perceived learning and outcome quality of collaboration using Google Docs. Proceedings of the Chais conference on instructional technologies research 2009: Learning in the technological era. Y. Eshet-Alkalai, A. Caspi, S. Eden, N. Geri, Y. Yair (Eds.), Raanana: The Open University of Israel. Retrieved April 2, 2011, from http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:bBVQbNfm4-MJ:scholar.google.com/+google+docs&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5

Kumar's work has a reasonable amount to offer in terms of a resource; his research gives more clues to the perceived effectiveness of Google Docs users have towards it as a collaborative tool. He has chosen to use the effective research method focus groups with semi-structured questions. Perhaps the useful part of investigating Google Docs as a collaborative tool is how he selected students at the university site who were in many disciplines. Thus he was able to elicit some good insights into why Google Docs is so praised as a collaborative educational tool. One finding was that students preferred Google Docs as a time saving tool where no formal meetings took place. Although the students were on campus, it was surprising that they felt they would rather use Google Docs then all meet to work on a project. The other finding was that the acceptance of this Web 2.0 collaborative technology was greater amongst students that had previous experience with Google Docs or other similar software. Another major advantage found by Kumar (2009) was that overall using such collaborative tools increased interest in the subject matter of their particular discipline. The concept that new technologies add value to existing practice was also interesting. Although Kumar was not clear on this concept, what students indicated this was the case, such a statement suggests that using Google Docs is linked to increased interest in a subject and in turn a desire to succeed. The weakness of this resource is Kumar is not clear of this link; however, as an article to show that Google Docs is of value equating collaboration tools with increased productivity shows how potentially valuable using them can be.

Yes Michael - I agree - things are constantly changing and evolving on the Internet and as you say if Kumar did the study again it would be a different outcome. Cheers, Kaye

This paper articulates through research and data analysis from although relatively small focus group the effectiveness of using new technologies 2.0 to enhance learning of students from different background in their respective disciplines. This is as same topic as one of my discussions with article Art Education, Collaboration and the Internet. It talks about internet technology integrates into contemporary education. New generation communicates and shares information differently in current technological society. Computer literate generation are different from earlier generations who rely mainly on books and printed materials. Collaborative online activity as an educational endeavor is involving people from different areas to work together.(Harris, 1999). Internet is also being used in region of high education that adopts Web2.0 to help students learning for their self-study and group projects and leverage strategies. (Kumar, n.d). Not only for undergraduate students, but also those students from high schools and colleges, all gained the benefits of new technologies across disciplines in order to achieving their teaching and learning purposes of education. For high education, I completely agree with that Google Documents is very popular among the students for collaborative projects or assignments, because I often use Google document for my topic research and reference as well. I also believe that the internet generation's familiarity with new media undoubtedly will make this way easier for teachers to craft effective learning experiences and to use such tools to engage students. Reference: Harris, J. (1999). First steps in telecollaboration. Learning and leading with technology. 27(3),54-57. Roland, A. (2003). Art Education, Collaboration and the Internet. Retrieved from http://www.artjunction.org/articles/arted_collab_internet.pdf Kumar, S. (n.d). Undergraduate Perceptions of the Usefulness of Web 2.0 in Higher Education: Survey Development. Re

This article takes a case study approach using qualitative and quantitative survey questions to measure the difference between pre and post uses of Google Docs. The research problem was based on the observation that Web 2.0 collaborative technologies were initially causing hesitation. However, upon consistent use in the context of an online course, students changed their minds about the usefulness of Google Docs. Both researchers intended to measure undergraduate levels of self-efficacy and undergraduates perceptions of using these collaborative technologies. The study had 18 respondents to the survey. Although the researchers acknowledged Google Docs limitations in the robustness of the software, they argued that this would make no difference to the perceptions of the undergraduates using it. The results of the study are somewhat unremarkable and predicable, yet support the idea that Google Docs is very useful for collaborative student work. There were major differences pre and post use of Google Docs that were significant. A majority of students felt their level of self-efficacy, that is confidence to use the software, was much higher after undertaking the course. The second hypothesis also showed the majority had positive perceptions of using Google Docs both in the course but significantly in future studies and workplaces. Although the researchers reported mostly positive results about the use of Google Docs, one issue clouded the results. Not being able to access the documents when offline is perceived as a major impediment in the collaborative process. Overall this study may seem somewhat bland and predictable; however, it supports much positive and negative criticism of Google Docs in the ability to foster and impede the learning of the students using it.

Reference Edwards, J.T., & Baker, C. (2010). A case study: Google collaboration applications as online course teaching tools. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 6(4), Retrieved April 3, 2011, from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol6no4/edwards_1210.htm

My topic is the collaboration practices of open source software development. OVERVIEW: Open source software has popularised the concept of free, open collaboration through the huge success of projects such as Linux, Apache, and Mozilla. This article from Wired Magazine explores how the concept of open source, propelled by the success of OSS projects, is being applied to all aspects of information compilation, from free scientific journals, to liberally-licensed gene-transfer technology, to freely-editable encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Although this article takes a somewhat liberal interpretation of 'open source', it does a good job of explaining the origins and future of the open source ethos. It also pinpoints two factors behind open source's success: the rise of the Internet, and general exasperation with stifling intellectual property laws. By concentrating on open source as "a broad body of collaborators ... whose every contribution builds on those before" (p. 1), this article successfully links the concept of open source with the broader theme of online collaboration. Open source software developments, along with other incarnations of open source such as Wikipedia, are prime examples of the power of online collaboration. Relying on the work of semi-anonymous participants and loose organisational mechanisms, open source projects create something of value without many of the restrictions of intellectual property. As exemplified in this article, all kinds of organisations can learn from the success of open source's collaborative online approach.

I wanted to comment Emily on what a fascinating example of collaboration this is and a good resource to share. The open source software movement, particularly Linux, was one of the first online examples of the gift economy at work as identified by many anthropologists. Indeed, what makes some scratch their heads when trying to get others to collaborate on projects is the eagerness of those to contribute without reward to the programming process. Much has been made of the fact that niceties are attended to in the community, such as making sure the other programmers know what you did on the code. Anthropologist Coleman (2004) commenting on Project Muse shows not only the power of collaboration practices, but also how political they can get. For example to clarify this point, Zeitlyn (2003) studied the motivations of programmers who get involved in such collaborations. Much open source work is built on an ideal and goal, it is just that the sheer size of these collaborations make them very interesting in the way they are organised and executed. I do think mass scale collaborations such as Red Hat are different to Wikipedia. To me Wikipedia is somewhat anarchistic. There are rules but there is no actual valued goal; not everyone is out improve Wikipedia, whereas Linux has a greater degree of concern for the end goal, which is often being the alternative to Windows. I enjoyed reading all your postings on this issue and it seems that both Zeitlyn and Hertel et al did a lot of work to try to understand open source software and collaboration practices. References Coleman, G. (2004). The Political Agnosticism of Free and Open Source Software and the Inadvertent Politics of Contrast. Anthropological Quarterly, 77(3), 507-519. Zeitlyn, D. (2003). Gift economies in the development of open source software: Anthropological reflections. Research Policy, 32(7), 1287-1291.

Due to the global financial crisis, companies globally have been finding ways to cut costs. Instead of staff travelling to attend meetings, businesses rely on methods such as video conferencing to assist in facilitating meetings with geographically dispersed teams. This article published on the technology blogging site Read Write Web discusses four main trends in regards to video conferencing. The four trends stated are consumerisation, mobility, interoperability and providing a social layer. Mobility and the social layer are interesting trends when thinking about collaboration via video conferencing. Smartphones being released are beginning to include video conferencing as a standard functionality. Through the use of smart phones, mobility allows team members to participate and collaborate whilst on the move. It unshackles team members from the restraints of being restricted to an office. For team members that travel regularly being able to videoconference from hotel rooms or other offices through their smart phone provides them with flexibility previously not seen. Social layers being added to software is becoming the norm (Flinley, 2010). The social layer extends video conferencing beyond just audio and video. By adding social layers to videoconferencing software, users are able to communicate in the one location rather than utilising multiple platforms. A social layer provides "social networking, instant messaging, voice and video into one system" also including the ability to share files. By encapsulating all means of communication in the one destination, team members save time and recording communication becomes easier. References: Finley, K. (2010). Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Read Write Web. Retrieved on 12 April 2011 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/10/trends-in-enterprise-video-conferencing.php

This article introduces some video conferencing applications, such as Cisco, Skype, Nefsis Basic, BlackBerry Playbook, and Google Voice, and shows how they are used as collaboration tools in enterprises. Burke (2011) summarizes that the use of such tools helps to establish instant communication, save travelling time, and cut business cost. One of my selected articles, iManage Unveils the First Multi-Platform Collaborative Content Management Suite, announces a new Internet content management application suit called iManage WorkSite MP which is an online collaboration tool as well. Both video conferencing tools and Internet content management applications are network-based, so users' contributions will be available instantly, and shared information can be distributed globally. Both of them aim at improving business efficiency, reducing cost and resource, and finally developing organisational service and product quality. While video conferencing tools focus on communication by audio and video, Internet content management applications, such as iManage WorkSite, has more to do with information management, such as text, image, and spreadsheets. It can be said that online collaboration tools can facilitate meetings among team members geographically, provide access to shared knowledge and ideas, and manage organisational information effectively. I argue that the combination of both video conferencing and content management tools can offer a comprehensive service to an organisation to compete in the global economy. As Fedorowicz, Laso-Ballesteros, and Padilla-Melendez (2008) state, the development of online collaboration "will facilitate multidisciplinary innovation and reduce barriers and inefficiencies among people working together" (p.1). Reference: Burke, M (2011) Comment on Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Retrieved from http://groups.diigo.com/group/cur

Video conferencing as one of online collaboration tools, able to change the way people communicate as well as their perceptions towards the work day in nowadays. Video conferencing has become a part of communication strategy, this article shows that about 37% of Skype users use the service for business purpose, which is they use Skype to make conference video that is more convenient and less traveling cost, users would be able to meet up without consuming traveling time which normally required in order to meet face to face. I found out this article are useful in terms of explaining the way video conferencing been used in business as well as introducing 4 new trends on how people use it, and as resources itself, it is credible enough, this article took from ReadWrite Enterprises web sites that mainly focusing on business purposes. By relating on my own topic, which is talk about the use and features of social bookmarking site (delicious), video conferencing as well provides specific features in order to facilitate the video conference, hence users would be able to use the features and communicating online, same as the way delicious using it special features, such as tags, where people would be able to collaborate their bookmarks as long as they are sharing and using same tags. As for value, this article shows and recommends how useful video conferencing is and there is multiple ways and benefits we could get by using it online. References: Finley, K. (2010). Four Trends in Enterprise Video Conferencing. Read Write Web. Retrieved on 12 April 2011 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/10/trends-in-enterprise-video-conferencing.php

This article by Chris Brogan demonstrates the enormous potentials of adopting a virtual office using communication and collaboration tools. Brogan, owner of a small-business education and growth company believes that doing business without the traditional trappings means equipping employees with the right platforms. The author breaks down the tools he used for his virtual office. The first list was the tools used for communication which comprised of: - Skype: Used as a de facto office phone - Adium and Trillian: An instant messaging tool. - Yammer: An internal organisational version of twitter. As their online collaboration tool, company used various free virtual tools: - Google Docs (docs.google.com): sharing information back and forth. Google Docs is one of the more popular tools for sharing and editing documents in real time online. - Linoit (en.linoit.com): A virtual cork board for sticky notes. - Dropbox (dropbox.com) - Real time file sharing. At one time, the office was a physical place, and communicating with colleagues meant visiting their cubicles to discuss ideas or ask questions. Online media, however, have expanded the office to virtual environments in which one regularly interacts with co-workers from different cultures and countries (Amant, 2003). A virtual office removes time and place for an organisation. Reference: Brogran, C. (2011). Virtually there: Facilitating communication and collaboration at a virtual office using software tools. Entrepreneur, 39(1), 1. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=dc3fa996-00f5-4ad2-994b-3393f25aad18%40sessionmgr114&vid=2&hid=108 Amant, K. S. (2003). Making contact in international virtual offices: an application of symbolic interactionism to online workplace discourse. Institute of Technology & Sci. Communication, 46(3), 4. Retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1227596