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Howard Rheingold is one, if not the most, interesting writer and theorist about collaboration and the use of new participatory media literacy in the framework of Flash Mobs. Cited in almost all the papers, studies and blog posts I have read, he certainly represents a respected thinker and is a reliable author of a number of books on this topic, including Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution (2002) and The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier (2000), which establish and explain the relationship between social, cultural and new digital communication mediums. In this video in particular, Rheingold talks about the relationships between communication, Medias (as communication mediums) and collective actions. He argues that our communication means, the way we use them, how they are developed and the ways in which we organise socially have been co-evolving since the beginning of human interaction (2005). He also states that this mutual evolution has conveyed new social interactions, and one perfect example to illustrate this theory is certainly the Flash Mob phenomenon. It is just a new way to interact, made possible by online collaboration of humans expressing their natural need to socialise. This reference in my bookmark list represents a valuable piece of information as it describes the historic bond between communication, collaboration and our social development. Indeed, Rheingold emphasises the fact that collaboration, as a vital question of survival, has naturally emerged between humans. REFERENCES Rheingold, H. (2000). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. MIT Press. And (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New-York: Basic Books. And (2005) Howard Rheingold on Collaboration [video streaming], accessible from http://www.ted.com/talks/howard_rheingold_on_collaboration.html (accessed on 10th April, 2011)

Topic : How internet technology has shaped collaboration within organisations. How social networking increases collaboration at IBM http://proquest.umi.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/pqdweb?did=1930082361&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=22212&RQT=309&VName=PQD This article is an extract taken from a 2009 Melcrum Research report. The article focuses on IBM and how a social networking application has increased collaboration for its 365,000 employees around the world through the use of an application called the BluePages which has been loosely modelled on MySpace and Facebook. The IBM BluePages are accessed six million times each day by staff and contain basic staff information which is pulled from IBM's HR records, and includes information about reporting lines and where people fit inside the organisation. Staff can update their photo, and add specific information about themselves through the use of tags (keywords). Tags connect staff to others who might be using the same tags, in addition colleagues can add tags to another individuals page which further builds a relevant database of expertise throughout the network. IBM's BluePages also take search to the next level, whereby if someone is searching on a tag (keyword) that has been used by an individual, all people that have that tag will also be returned in the search results. "This development opens up semantic contextual information to the wisdom of the crowd." [Ethan McCarty] IBM also has a collaborative application called ThinkPlace where anybody in the company can post an idea. If the idea has merit, others can comment on it until the idea has developed into something that requires action. Another use of ThinkPlace has more of a social conscience whereby one employee noticed

Like IBM, I manage the intranet for an organisation where a significant percentage of our workforce work from locations other than work. This Melcrum article concentrates largely on social tagging and social bookmarking. Ethan McCarty, editor in chief of IBM Intranet believes " 'tagging' will be one of the most significant things to have happened on the internet." I agree with much of what McCarty says. Our organisation is moving from a fairly one-way push of information on our intranet to a more collaborative and activity-based platform. I was interested to read about IBM's BluePages, which seems to be an extension of a normal phonebook but connects people with other people's knowledge through social tagging. We are about to launch a similar application on our intranet that also has a self-editing system. This is an important first step in getting our intranet to become a place of collaboration. Hopefully the launch of this tool will allow management to see staff can be trusted to use tools correctly and self-edit and that 'social' networking concepts used on the internet can be translated into valuable internal tools. Tagging through the contact directory is also a feature of social networking that our management and culture would be comfortable with as a first step. In a fairly risk-adverse culture, many senior managers believe the use of 'social networking' tools in the workplace would open up a Pandora's box of problems. This article however, demonstrates that collaborative and networking tools in the workplace obviously have a valuable role to play. I think the words 'social media' and 'social networking' scare a lot of managers off right from the start.

For IBM, the social networking site is not only works well internally. They also use SNS as a way to build relationship to consumer. I personally use IBM as an example of online collaboration. They use Tumblr as collaboration tools to create conversation between company and their audience and users. http://smartercities.tumblr.com/ I saw this Tumblelog as a corporate social responsibility project to give back to consumers. They are trying to engage consumer with the smart way of living (mainly by using IBM product). In this Tumblr, consumer can contribute by sending an email about their smart way of living. They also can like or reblog the post from IBM that indirectly lead them to viral marketing. Relate to your article, for a big company such as IBM social network may become the best way to communicate with all employees. They can get a fast information and suggestion about the company. But the criticism is, for example, if they join the company group in Facebook it means they need to be conscious with what they put online. Their private life also can be seen by the company. They can say bad things about company that will make them risk their job. Because I heard this kind of story where people get fired just because they forget they are friend with their boss in Facebook. This is only my criticism.

This is an analytical article in which the writer, Elisha Peterson, discusses the use of Wiki's in her mathmatical undergraduate course. The wiki-based software, wikidot, allowed her students to post questions as well as work collaboratively on assignments. In the article the author outlines the ways in which the wiki was specifically helpful for her class. She believes that it helped to improve participation by her students. This nturn helped students to feel more at ease when they saw what other students assignments were about. She also talks about their collaborative glossary of terms, in which each student had to post two definitions. She found that because of the collaborative nature, the students posted more than the required. It was also interesting to note that students were able to comment and correct other students work, which in turn ensured they werent studying the wrong material. However it seems that what was the most important for her class was the the compatibility wikidot had with their typesetting tool LaTeX. This made typing out mathematical equations an ease instead of students having to scan written material to the site. it seems that another positive of the site is the fact that it shows the logged time of each student, and therefore shows how much time they spent online either merely reading or perhaps editing (and what they edited was shown as well). I feel the most important part of her analysis is the feedback from her students. When examining the feedback it was obvious to see that many students believed that the online collaboration helped them when it came to studying for exams. I believe this would be a great way to get help from other students; you are able to address your question to a whole group of people instead of just one person (the teacher) this way students will get answers much quicker. It seems that the only issue behind the use of a wiki is the fact that students are unable to edit a page at the same time, however it s

Online collaboration has already proved its worth in software production and in the business models of various websites and organisations (eg. Wikipedia). This article provides a good example of how online collaboration can be worthy of inclusion into course material. In this example, students in the author's maths class benefited from extending their small community into an online space because students could correct each other's glossary entries and gain guidance by looking at other students' projects online. While it would have been possible for these students to collaborate offline as well, I found it interesting that various properties of the Internet seemingly made online collaboration easier than offline collaboration. For example, students could access the Wikidot page even outside of class time. Built-in features of the wiki such as forums, syntax for 'definition lists', hyperlinks, and LaTeX further assisted communication online. Having completed units involving the use of online collaboration tools (including Wikidot), I've observed that the usefulness of online tools is inevitably limited by how many students actually participate. While Ye and Kishida (2003) postulate that a 'community of practice' motivates participants to learn through participation, I would theorise that the allocation of marks to collaborative tasks is the most effective motivation for students to participate. Indeed, the author finds that tasks to which marks are allocated had excellent participation rates, while the forum, for which use was not compulsory, was used by only a few students. References: Ye, Y. & Kishida, K. (2003). Toward an Understanding of the Motivation of Open Source Software Developers. Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Software Engineering. Accessed April 15, 2011, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=776867

This article discusses the author, Elishia Peterson's experience in creating and maintaining a wiki for her mathematics students to use during their semester. Peterson describes the tasks and activities she assigned the students in order to utilise the online collaboration tool that is Wikidot and was satisfied with the level of student involvement. (2009). Peterson is also forthcoming in any negatives and shortfalls she experienced during the course of the semester period, including the issue of more than one person working on the page at a time (which locks the other out and they are thus required to wait their 'turn') and that having to learn how to use the Wiki properly also took up a little extra time. Despite these minor issues, Peterson explains that the wiki created a more "streamlined student - instructor" relationship and that the communication kept the students engaged. The ability to post course material and answer questions on the wiki, along with the activities assigned to the students, created an environment where the students were able to work together. Peterson does mention that the use of the discussion board may have further enhanced the experience for her students but she found the board largely ignored perhaps as there was no grade requirement to utilise that specific tool. This reminds me of Broomhall's (2009) observation that just because a collaboration tool is available, does not mean it will be used. References: Broomhall, A (2009) No collaboration without communications Retrieved from http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_nocollaboration/index.html Peterson, E.. (2009). Using a Wiki to Enhance Cooperative Learning in a Real Analysis Course. Primus : Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies, 19(1), 18-28. Retrieved April 17, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1642644011). Retrieved from http://proquest.umi.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/pqdweb?index=1&did=1642644011&SrchMode=1&sid=10&Fmt=4&VI

Tumblr becomes new media that more conversational than Twitter nor Facebook. The multi format of contents that you posted builds more conversation and comments rather than posted in Twitter. The content also become more fun and interesting, also engaging to reader that invites them to involve in the conversation and share it to others. Most of the publisher consideration to use Tumblr is because of the more conversational aspect. Facebook is more to building identity in the web but Tumblr an extension of their printed materials. The feature of not showing how many followers that you have-not like in Twitter or Facebook-also makes Tumblr professionally one step ahead. As the senior editor of Newsweek, Mr.Coatney, that start using Tumblr for his magazine say, "It is less about broadcasting to an audience and more about communicating with a community." (Wortham, 2010) As collaboration tools, Tumblr fit printed media perfectly. It becomes the new extension of magazines that engage a whole new conversation level. The relationship is no longer between letters to the editor, but readers involve as co-creator that give them sense of ownership (Wortham, 2010). The development of web 2.0 creates the notion of two-way communication pattern that need to be followed by traditional media. Wortham, J. (2010). Media Companies Try Getting Social With Tumblr. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02tumblr.html

The Internet is growing fast since it first emerges and become the popular media for people. You will get more opportunity to share information and content. Moreover, with the development of smart phone that gives you ability to access the Internet on your hand creating the notion of "information overloaded" but in good meaning (Gilman, 2010). Social media is the most popular website type that regularly used. Business begins to see this trend as their opportunity to engage more with the audience by using social media as collaboration tool. Tumblr is one of the choice business can have. As mention on the subheading of the article, Tumblr can be a platform that sets you apart from the traditional marketing campaign when targeting younger clients. The ability to incorporate blog-type psoting, video and photo sharing in a web page give a good value to Tumblr and it is easy to use. You can log in into the website or make a phone call to Tumblr 866 and will automatically post in your Tumblr. Another advantage why business should use Tumblr as one of the collaboration toosl is you can limit what people see on the Tumblr page (Gilman, 2010). You do not have to build a complex profile to be shown in Tumblr. Tumblr also allows customizing your domain to fit your business personality. As mentioned on the other article that I posted, Tumblr can create the notion of viral. You can post a video to Tumblr page and get a comment or little interaction ("like" button) that can lead into your follower reblog your post, an easy viral distribution. Business should see Tumblr as a new communication tools with their audience, especially the younger one. Social media that they frequently use can be the way to get their heart and engage more to the brand. As collaboration tool, Tumblr create opportunity for interaction on a neutral playing field or allowing the meeting itself to become an opportunity for creativity and exploration. Younger audience is getting bored with the

One of the business that also use Tumblr is IBM (http://smartercities.tumblr.com/) In this Tumblr we can see the collaboration of company and audience (the Tumblr's followers). By raising the topic about "The Smart Cities", we can conclude that IBM build this Tumblr in purpose of social responsibility project. Followers can contribute by telling IBM a great city that you have in mind.

This article shows an example of how crowd sourcing is thinning the line between amateurs and professions. With Web 2.0 making the internet about networking and sharing, crowd sourcing is something that is changing the way in which people can consume products. The example in this article is that of a project director who needed specifically themed photographs for a project. Instead of hiring a professional photographer she went to the internet to find stock photos, initially a photographer offered her photographs for a competitive price, until she found a website called 'iStockPhoto' in which she could purchase stock photographs for $1. Websites like 'iStockPhoto' are databases of photographs taken by amateurs in the field. The issue raised in this article is how crowd-sourcing is obviously eliminating peoples need to find professional photographers, and whether crowd-sourcing will eventually eliminate the need for professionals in industries such as photography and design. People no longer have to look locally for professionals to do things for them; the internet is a whole other realm for finding exactly what they want, but for less money. Howe states that "The open source software movement proved that a network of passionate, geeky volunteers could write code just as well as the highly paid developers at Microsoft or Sun Microsystems." This reinforces the belief that people who may not be able to make it in the real world with their talent, have much more opportunities online.

'99Designs' is a website that connects designers with small businesses who need design projects. The website allows for those who need designs to post what they want and then for designers to take on the project and compete to complete the best design. The design chosen by the project poster is awarded prize money. Looking for graphic designers online enables businesses to quickly and conveniently source the designs they want. The main advantage also being that they have the pick of many designs put forward to them, rather than say paying someone for their time to create something for you, only for it to be not entirely what you want. You obviously have to have the skills in design, but it gives those who have not been given the opportunities in the real world, to put their skills to use and make money on the internet. Websites such as this also allows for people to build their portfolios and in the long run are advantaged by the opportunity to design for people that they choose. This use of crowd sourcing shows how the internet is changing the way in which we do business, as it offers an easier and cheaper option for the buyers and more opportunities for the producers. References About Us. (2011). Retrieved from 99designs: http://99designs.com/help/aboutus Kumo. (2011, January). Design and Money Making Opportunities at 99designs. Retrieved from ToastEggMe: http://www.toasteggme.com/index.php/money-making-opportunities-site/design-and-money-making-opportunities-at-99designs/

As a designer, this article raises some very important important issues within the design industry. Design99 is just one of many similar crowdsourcing sites, which have cropped up online, which encourage designers to compete and bid for work online. In the industry, this is known as "spec work" and has often been a source of strong debate. Spec work presents a great opportunity for clients as they get to pick and choose from potentially dozens of designs, all the the price of one. On the other hand, designers run the risk of putting in many hours of work, for which they may or may not be paid. For a design student, this presents no real risk, and it can even provide a degree of professional development but a professional designer cannot hope run a business if they are essentially expected to work for free. For this reason, many professionals refuse to engage in spec work. Except for pro-bono and some charity work AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts and AGDA, the Australian Graphic Design Association actively discourage the practice. Grefé points out (2009) AIGA "believes that professional designers should be compensated fairly for the value of their work and should negotiate the ownership or use rights of their intellectual and creative property through an engagement with clients". AGDAs position is rather more blunt, as Bartow recommends avoiding spec work "like the plague" (Bartow, n.d). While many freelance sites behave this way (see O'Dell, 2010) there are also crowdsourcing sites which don't. Brandstack.com allows designers to upload and sell unused designs from other jobs and, as only professional designers are accepted on the site, clients can be assured of receiving only high quality designs and professional service. References: Bartow, D. (n.d). "29 Things Young Designers Should Know" in Howdesign.com. Retrieved via Agda.com.au nofollo

Diigo keeps deleting my references so I'll try again Bartow, D. (n.d). "29 Things Young Designers Should Know" in Howdesign.com Retrieved via Agda.com.au http://agda.com.au/news/national/819/29-things-young-designers-should-know Grefé, R. (2009, May). "What is AIGA's position on spec work? And how are ethical standards determined?" in Aiga.org. Retrieved from http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/what-is-aigas-position-on-spec-work-and-ethical-standards#addcomment O'Dell, J. (2010, April 2)."Want Crowdsourced Design Without the Spec Work? Try Brandstack" on Mashable.com. Retrieved via http://www.mashable.com/2010/04/02/brandstack/

This article is an assessment of the book 'Crowd sourcing' by Jeff Howe. An important example of crowd-sourcing is the way in which businesses can be created. As discussed in this article, the use of crowds in businesses is highly effective because they are inevitably the consumers as well. With the example of Threadless.com, an online clothing business that allows crowds to design, vote for and buy t-shirts, we can easily see how a business can benefit by not having to hire people to do the jobs they used to. Outlined in the article is the way in which crowds are more efficient than current organisations. 1. Making predictions These are the decisions made by the crowd, which seem to be accurate as they know how to appeal to the consumer market. 2. Solving problems With opinions coming from a crowd of people, problems are able to be solved more easily as a range of solutions can be offered and applied. 3. Brainstorming and designing Relating to companies such as Threadless, since the designs come from the same people as the website markets to, they are able to receive designs that are more likely to appeal to the consumers. 4. Funding With the use of a crowd, business have a larger database of knowledge available to them, as well as an excess amount of time. This is another example of how crowd sourcing is able to eliminate the jobs that have always been completed by professionals, by allowing people online to participate and put forward their skills to those who may be able to take advantage of them. Meyer, F. D. (2011, January). The Business of Crowd Sourcing. Retrieved from Crowdsourcings.org: http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/the-business-of-crowdsourcing/2430

This is an interesting article which gives an insight of how companies can use crowdsourcing in their corporate strategy. The author presents his assessment on Jeff Howe's book "Crowdsourcing" from 2008. The term crowdsourcing was coined by Howe, thus a review of "Crowdsourcing" will be relevant and valuable as a resource for this project. Meyer (2011) presents four different areas in which crowds can be more performing or efficient than current organisations. Howe's work excels in opening the mind regarding what will be possible through crowdsourcing in the future. With the emergence of Web 2.0 tools, crowdsourcing has proven to be an efficacy tool more and more businesses are adopting. Kessler (2010) argues that asking a pool of people to create something can be faster, cheaper, and more accurate than putting a project in the hands of individuals. As the competition to get consumers attention increase, crowdsourcing can be used to better satisfy consumers' demands. For example, the public may be invited to develop new technology or carry out a design task which has been seen in the company Fashion Stake (Kessler, 2010). During the crowdsourcing process people can vote designers up and down, thus the consumers are deciding what items go from sample to retail. By doing that, consumers are giving the company an understanding of what they really want (Kessler, 2010). This is an example of what Jeff Howe refer to as "brainstorming and design", an effective tool where the consumers are given the opportunity to influence the output. References Kessler, S. (2010). 5 Creative Uses for Crowdsourcing. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/05/26/creative-crowdsourcing/ Meyer, F., D. (2011). The Business of Crowdsourcing. Retrieved from http://www.crowdsourcing.org/document/the-business-of-crowdsourcing/2430

The article elaborates how Internet operates and applies successfully step by step in contemporary art educational field. The article explicitly explained how the Australian Art schools and teachers teach and guide their art students to use online information and different of websites to learn and share their discussions and opinions. Internet education has playing an important role in schools and universities since Internet widely entered to our society and life. In order to achieving their study goal, lots of adult students choose online education in contemporary technological society. In this article, Art online education is a successful example in domain of internet education. As Harris (1999) described a telecollaborative activity as an educational endeavor that is involving people from different areas to work together by using internet tools and resources.The biggest challenge for current art education is how to help students to live this digital communication age. When internet and new technologies provide us with unique opportunities in the life, the thing need to be worried about is how to study and utilize these communication technologies. However, to students, utilizing internet technology to think, to imagine, to create is the significant aspect for catching up this networking era.(Roland, 2003). To young generation, it is not a big issue to learn how to read and gather information from internet, and it is not a problem either to know how to communicate with others by online chatting tools. I think only internet knowledge they need to catch up for their online education is how to use special software to finish their online projects. The topics about internet collaboration and internet education will continue permeating into our society in this technological and digital era. This is an inevitable trend of technological progress and development. Reference: Harris, J. (1999). First steps in telecollaboration. Learning and le

OVERVIEW Because of the ability to share and interact online, collaboration tools are being considered as tools that can help children with learning. Keith McPherson believes that students should be kept up-to-date on recent technologies as they help educators expand their notion of literacy to embrace evolving communication that moves beyond (but still includes) just reading and writing. He also suggests that "educators assist their students to develop critical literacy capabilities across a wide set of real-life communication contexts and technologies." The article then goes on to describe 5 different online literacy tools that can be used to aid student participation and collaboration and therefore help in their learning. The 5 tools he talks about are, Gliffy, Google Docs, Newsmap, OpenOffice and Delicious. Each analysis gives the reader a brief outline of each tool and the advantages and disadvantages of each. While exploring the strengths and weaknesses, there were many contributing factors that were evident in Gliffy, Google Docs and OpenOffice, all three of them incorporate document type editing tools which make them easy to use. Also, all three of them allow various formats to be exported and imported onto the websites database. Of course all 5 incorporate the main theme of sharing (so this is where delicious and NewsMap fit into the mix) However NewsMap is the more interesting analysis that Keith McPherson includes in his article. This site is very different to the other four, yet he has found a way to include it as one of the key tools for students. This site uses Google Maps, and, as McPherson states "allows users to quickly locate international, national, regional, or local news." He believes it helps literacy skills because it aids middle/high school students with learning about mapping, directions, news and critical thinking. This is perhaps a site that may not have instantly been associated with learning in schools but interstingly has been

This is an interesting article highlighting the tools that can help assist students with their literacy. I find this subject extremely interesting as I have studied via distance education and I know from experience how tools such as Google Docs can be greatly beneficial in facilitating a group project. Another way students can be assisted in learning is through the use of videoconferencing. Videoconferences can assist students that are restricted due to physical disabilities or geographical limitations. By using videoconferencing software such as Skype in the classroom, students can be exposed to a number of different teaching methods or styles and other students. One of the great benefits with videoconferencing is providing students with motivation (Masum, Brooks and Spence, 2005). Instead of students feeling isolated with their learning they can use videoconferencing to discuss and share ideas with other teachers and students on a worldwide basis. By incorporating tools such as Google Docs, Delicious and video conferencing software, teachers can provide a more interesting way of teaching students. Google Docs could be used to facilitate the collection of ideas, Delicious can be used to share links and articles, while follow up and discussion of those ideas could take place through videoconferencing. This would present a student, that has restricted access to a school, with a full rounded experience of being in a classroom without physically having to leave their home. References: 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

Although I am not sure if a YouTube video link is alright for this assignment I felt it was a great source for the topic of online collaboration in student education and learning. Coomey envisioned an online global collaboration of journalism and broadcast students from different universities and in the year 2000 set out to accomplish this project in collaboration with other universities around the world. Many obstacles were in the way of success however, mostly technical, and highlight the evolution of online collaboration technologies. Computer access in 2000 was not as readily available as it is today in 2011, bandwidth was slow and internet connections were unreliable. Time differences between the students in their respective countries was also an issue as for this project, chat rooms were used as the main collaboration tool. Coomey ultimately says the collaboration effort was not really a collaboration as the students weren't able to work together due to these technical issues but rather they were only able to discuss their projects after the fact. Now in 2011 as most of the technological issues have been solved and also with the development of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. A new project called the Global City is now in it's maiden form and the website can be found here http://www.theglobalcity.org/. With the continuing evolution of online collaboration tools an the innovation of users we can see that many of the obstacles and boundaries once faced are slowly able to be dissolved, which opens up new opportunities and experiences to students around the globe. References: Coomey, M. (2010). The Virtual Newsroom: An International Online Collaboration between Broadcast Journalism Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPAtVVKwzPw

As a journalism major having spent the last two weeks working 9am to 6pm newsroom shifts to produce our newspaper's first edition for 2011, I find myself particularly drawn to this topic. Putting aside its unreliable air-conditioning and sticky keyboards, the short tempers of sleep-deprived students and the threat of vitamin D deficiency...working in the newsroom proved to be one of the most socially creative and genuinely rewarding environments I have experienced. And I can say with certainty- it wouldn't have been the same online. I am an enthusiastic advocate for the news media to embrace the online sphere and enable its consumer to "archive, annotate, appropriate and recirculate media content in powerful new ways" (Jenkins, 2004). The convergence of news online presents an exciting opportunity for audiences to interact with the news in "increasingly participatory" (Dueze, 2007) ways such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (Coomey, 2011). There are noticeable positives to an online newsroom: reporters can publish their work immediately and from anywhere, the capacity for international voices, and not having to rent office space or purchase on-site equipment. According to a 2005 survey into the roles of journalists in online newsrooms (Magee, 2005), organisations expect their journalists to multi-task- writing, producing multimedia, and publishing their work- an overload which may dilute the quality of the product. A traditional newsroom has its journalists physically and mentally there, and the atmosphere is intoxicating. It's noisy, you bump into people, and there's always someone microwaving Chinese food. You don't need to wait for someone to come online to reply, or get tripped up by faulty programs and Internet connection. It's a hive of imagination and collaboration. Someone will walk past and offer their suggestions on a better layout, people call out for a headline or editing suggestion, others showing photographers and

This is an interesting blog that debate e-mail is a powerful collaboration tool or not. I totally agree with Suarez (2006) that e-mail is a very powerful communication tool. We can receive every mail whether are junk mails or useful mails. Others could receive a mail within few minutes from someone who live at the other side of world. In addition, people receive wide range of information from e-mail. However, I am not completely agreed that we miss out the point of collaboration and knowledge management once we define e-mail is good enough collaboration tool. Suarez (2006) mentioned how people have managed e-mails. Although nine people read e-mails, only a person knows the content of e-mails, is able to trace out particular e-mails and uses e-mails. Thus e-mail is not powerful collaborations tool. My opinion is the argument misses the essential elements of knowledge sharing. It is human. No matter the knowledge sharing tools or other collaboration tools, they also require human's management. If no one sends mails in electronic format, e-mail would not be at society anymore. The nature of e-mail still is collaboration tools. Organisations should focus on human is well use e-mail system and the information that inside e-mail system. This is a human base procedure. Reference Suarez, L. (2006). Email: The Good Enough Collaboration Tool - Is It Really? Retrieved from http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/elsua/email-the-good-enough-collaboration-tool-is-it-really-11473

I know someone who works in information management and, to prevent duplication, they have dedicated procedures, spelling out who is supposed to archive emails and documents. As I understand it, only the original sender submits a copy to the file, cc copies can be deleted.

Thanks Shan as I enjoyed reading this article. The question of whether the good old email is a good enough collaboration tool is an interesting debate. I beg to differ that email is not a powerful collaboration tool. I am part of an organisation where are main communication and collaboration happens through emails. We plan, organise, discuss and share documents through emails. I will list some functions vital to our organisation that email provides: 1. Organisation - You can track and organise responses through email by clicking on the latest responses. The latest email often contains the conversation from previous users as mentioned my Samantha in her response. Who said what and at what time can also be noted. 2. Document sharing - Just like any collaboration tool, you can attach and send any document in any format to the group in your network. The only area traditional email clients falls short is real-time editing. Google Gmail provides this function by incorporating Google Docs with the Gmail Service. This makes it a powerful online collaboration tool where content editing is incorporated into the email system. 3. Records - Like modern collaboration tools, emails can be archived and searched. Though we meet up on monthly basis, my organisation can be classified as a virtual team. As a virtual team, email is a powerful collaboration tool for us. Thanks once again, a great article related to my topic of collaboration within organisations.

Instant Messaging (IM) applications, such as AOL Instant Messaging (AIM), MSN Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger, have become very popular in the last decade. This paper by de Vos et al. (2004) investigates the adaption of Instant Messaging (IM) by individual users and pairs of users within a mid-size organization. This paper is important as it examines employees' willingness to adapt to instant messaging tools within an organization. The findings from the research showed a fourfold increase in IM use after the introduction, both in terms of users and the number of conversations. The findings are interesting as it has been argued that the main problem companies experience when implementing online collaboration tools is the objections many employees have when introduced to these new tools (Foster, 2009). The main limitation of the paper is that the authors' research sample was restricted to only one organisation. The period of research was four months before and three months after introduction of IM in an organisation, thus the authors indicate that further research needs to be undertaken to see how usage patterns develop over a longer period of time. de Vos et al found that business mobile phones users don't seem to benefit from IM. However, this finding is not applicable anymore as smartphones with IM applications have been introduced after the paper was written in 2004. References de Vos, H., ter Hofte, H. & de Poot, H. (2004). IM [@Work] Adoption of Instant Messaging in a Knowledge Worker Organisation. Retrieved from https://doc.telin.nl/dsweb/Get/Document-30163/205610019a.pdf Foster, D. (2009). Collaboration Technology and Organisational Change. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/collaboration/collaboration-technologies-and-organizational-change/

I think the rapid adoption of instant messaging software in the workplace could be due to the trend of consumerisation of products prior to businesses adopting them (Flinley, 2010). Many employees would have been exposed to instant messaging through Skype, Microsoft Messanger etc in their personal use of the Internet (Flinley, 2010). When businesses implement this software into the workplace, they are already aware of the benefits and they are familiar with the how the software is used so this would lead to the employee adopting this software quicker. Instant Messaging is also available in the free download of Skype. Skype provides users with the ability to instant message but also gives users the ability to videoconference, audio calls, file sharing and screen sharing. These are important factors when considering which program to download to implement instant messaging software. By providing staff with instant messaging software that can also provide a variety of tasks saves the company money and provides employees with a variety of ways to communicate and to collaborate with one another. One of the great features of Skype that was updated in their most recent version is screen sharing. Screen sharing is often restricted to the IT department of businesses but Skype gives this functionality to basic users. Allowing people to see each other screens, increases users ability to share information with one another. References: Flinely, K. (2010). Consumerization of IT: 95% of Information Workers Use Self-Purchased Technology for Work. Readwriteweb. Retrieved on 16 April 2011 from http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/03/consumerization-of-it-95-of-in.php 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

I think we should concern about is how to capture and manage the useful knowledge from Instant Messaging (IM). IM helps staffs share knowledge in organisations. de Vos et al. (2004) wanted to find out in the research that IM supports quick question and clarification, keeping touch with friends and families. This is a common situation nowadays. I have an experience that my friends at Hong Kong always discuss their questions of study or work with me with Windows massager. My friend who work at school library often ask me about cataloguing problem when she is working. IM not only allows transferring knowledge within organisations, it also allows staffs interacting with people outside organisations. Therefore, the first issue of manage knowledge is separated the useful message out. It is not useful of private message. IM sharing is not a formal knowledge sharing method. Nevertheless, it place important role in organisations. Caruso (2010) pointed out in his article that organisations must able to understand some of the tools that can utilize to knowledge sharing all among the organisation. Meanwhile, Caruso (2010) also indicated that "80 percent of organisational knowledge exists exclusively within an individual." Although IM is usual in the organisation, but the information is only store in staffs' brain, not in the organisation. We should think an appropriate way to manage the information in IM. Reference Caruso, S. (2010). Informal Workplace Learning and Knowledge Sharing. Retrieved from http://www.eadulteducation.org/adult-learning/informal-workplace-learning-and-knowledge-sharing/ Caruso, S. (2010). Informal Workplace Learning and Knowledge Sharing. Retrieved from http://www.eadulteducation.org/adult-learning/informal-workplace-learning-and-knowledge-sharing/

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

In this paper, the authors examine the use of instant messaging (IM) during face-to-face, telephone, and computer-mediated team meetings, a practice they call "invisible whispering". Dennis et al. argue that organisational decision making is dominated by teams as a team has more resources, knowledge, and political insight than any one individual working alone. Collaboration technology has come to play an important role as teams have become more geographically distributed. The authors analyse how invisible whispering alters the socio-spatial and temporal boundaries of team decision making by using Goffman's theatrical conceptualisation of social interaction. Dennis et al. suggest that invisible whispering constitutes a new communicative genre. They distinguish between six types of invisible whispering and then describe how meeting participants used these practices to restructure the socio-spatial and temporal boundaries of collaborative decision making process. Findings from the research showed that invisible whispering is likely to improve the efficiency of collaborative decision making. However, they also found mixed effects on decisions quality, satisfaction, individual comprehension, and the relationship between group members. The paper is important as it shows how instant messaging can be used within organisations a decision making tool. The authors argue that workers are able to influence front stage decision making through backstage conversations, which would have been physically impossible or socially constrained without the use of IM. This proves that instant messaging is an important collaborative tool that organisations can benefit from. References Dennis, A. R., Rennecker, J. A., Hansen, S. (2010). Invisible Whispering: Restructuring Collaborative Decision Making with Instant Messaging. Decision Sciences, 41(4), 845-886. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1540-5915.2010.00290.x/pdf

By examining the practice the use of Instant Messaging (IM) for undetectable conversations during meetings, termed 'invisible whispering', this paper provides an interesting example of how communication technologies are changing collaboration. Collaboration generally relies on trust and/or effective collaborative mechanisms (Mockus et al., 2002). However, employees of the two firms studied in this paper regularly used IM to communicate secretly with each other or with others outside of the meeting. I found it interesting that the previously unacceptable practice of whispered conversations became acceptable when conducted using digital means - probably partly due to increased speed and efficiency offered by multiple synchronous conversations (p. 856). To me, the importance of such a case study is that it demonstrates how socio-spatial boundaries have been expanded. In this case, invisible whispering alters socio-spatial boundaries by bringing in the influence of outsiders, and by allowing conversations that would have occurred at another time to be brought into the context of current conversation. As such, this paper provides a good launching pad for considering the scope of online collaboration's influence. An examination of online collaboration projects such as open source software or Wikipedia reveals that, generally, online collaboration has worked to break down socio-spatial limitations by allowing the participation of more people than could ever have fit into one room, practically transcending geographical distance, and changing the nature of conversations so that they can occur either instantly or asynchronously. Reference: Mockus, A., Fielding, R., & Herbsleb, J. (2002). Two Case Studies of Open Source Software Development: Apache and Mozilla. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, 11(3), p. 309-346.