CurtinNet308

Topic : How internet technology has shaped collaboration within organisations. Analyzing collaborative networks emerging in Enterprise 2.0: the Taolin Platform http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B9853-524PR0D-G/2/30d3637587514757e7ea1c6dbb1afcae This working paper was presented at the 4th and 5th UK Social Networks Conference and was a summary of a study whose goal was to identify how online interactions between users changed with the introduction of the social networking platform in a commercial environment. It reviews the deployment of an Enterprise 2.0 piece of Open Source software (Taolin) into Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), a research organisation (FBK) with 400 staff and discusses how the technology was used by the research staff and the communications patterns that developed throughout the study. In addition the paper identifies the different types of ties or relationships an individual user could have, and points out that if these ties were more visible it would enable people to tap into a much larger network than their immediate peers or basic social network. Given there were so many discreet groups of researchers at FBK the plan was to try and leverage off learnings that could be applied to more than one research area. From a technology perspective FBK always stated that the Taolin platform was in beta, meaning that it was never finished or as others might comment, constantly being improved. The platform was rolled out to a group that was approximately 10% of the organisation, and usage increased with each release through the involvement of champions who recruited more champions through word of mouth, instead of going with a top down approach from management. The paper concludes with learnings from the study stating that further research needs to be completed in certain areas to continue to improve the progressive enhancement of the Taolin social networking platform. Reference

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)

Clay Shirky is a guru of Internet technologies and online collaborative effort studies. This document, which contains two videos from his presentation at Harvard University, provides in-depth explanations on some chapters from his book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations (2008). This material is a very valuable reference on Flash Mob studies and more generally for online collaboration. Indeed, Shirky underlines how online collaborative tools are used by people to gather and coordinate without needing traditional organizational and social structures like institutions in our "real life" (Forte, 2010). The idea conveyed in both videos is that Internet, as a space of multi-level freedom, is an extension of the innate human ability to form groups, whatever the reasons. He adds that the orientation of these groups also depends on the political environment. He contextualizes the Flash Mob phenomenon in the age of digital communications and argues that Internet allows us to see the largest ever increase in our potential ability for expression. This expression turns into social interactions such as Flash Mobs. Furthermore, Shirky investigates new forms of political protest supported by Internet and hence, he uses it as a very efficient example to illustrate the shift from online to offline social coordination. He focuses on the role of emails and Flash Mobs as characteristics of political protests in the age of "easy and rapid group forming", which is a specificity of networks (Forte, 2010). REFERENCES Forte, M. (2010). "Clay Shirky: 15 Points on the Web Revolution in Social Collaboration and Political Communication", Political Activism and the Web. Accessible from http://webography.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/clay-shirky-15-points-on-the-web-revolution-in-social-collaboration-and-political-communication (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Shirky, C. (2008). Talks on "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Orga

REFERENCES (continue): Shirky, C. (2008). Talks on "Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations". Accessible from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/berkmanat10/2008/02/shirky (accessed on 11th April 2011)

As Virag Molnar (2010) emphasises, researchers who have studied the Flash Mob phenomenon (and its derivatives like subway parties), have only focused on the role of digital communication technologies such as blogs, social networking websites or mobile phones, in the organisation and collaborative processes. Yet, in her paper, she remarkably examines how Flash Mobs, as new types of collective actions, provide insights into the "intersection and interaction between new communications media and changing uses of physical urban space" (2010). Using the example of Flash Mobs, she states that communication technologies (mobile phones and Internet in particular), have become powerful design tools used for encouraging new forms of sociability and collaboration, emphasising that they are at the very core of these new kinds of organisation models. Following Rheingold's concept of Smart Mobs (2002), Molnar draws the differences between Flash Mob actions happening in Western Europe or in the U.S, with contrasting Flash Mob events in Eastern Europe or Asia. She highlights that cultural factors will influence sociability as the essence of Flash Mobs and describes their instrumental use to express political, marketing or entertainment purposes. Nonetheless, it is clear from her explanations that whatever the aim of the Flash Mob is, the online collaboration step to make it happen remains as an essential aspect of offline mobilisation and acts as a springboard towards it (Picataggio, 2007). REFERENCES Picataggio, S. (2007). "Use of Social Media and the Internet", on Flash Mob: 101. Accessible from http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall07/Picataggio/index.html (accessed on April 12th, 2011) Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New-York: Basic Books.

This paper does a great job in critically analysing how Flash Mobs, a new socio-cultural phenomenon, are in fact final products born from a complex human collaboration and use of the technological revolution that is the Internet. It clearly explains their specificity as being totally socially mediated on, by and through online digital tools (blogs, social media, forums, instant messaging) that are used as collaborative spaces to virtually organise and create a real-life upcoming interaction between people (Nicholson, 2005). What's more, the paper brings some ideas about how the Internet can also be used to "hijack" and reverse the original essence of Flash Mob philosophy, thereby turning its main assets - instantaneity, virtual proximity, massive audience reach, networks, costless operation - into potential factors for bringing chaos, as when Philadelphia experienced a very violent wave of riots (Wagner & Buzi, 2010), or when a political protest flash mob was organised in Belarus in 2006 (Peterson, 2009). Garland demonstrates the importance of cooperation and participation between network users for Flash Mobs and cites Rheingold's thesis, with which I strongly agree, that states that they are "a type of social engagement that may be created and organised by interacting with the technology of shared networks or the technologies that allow the shared networks to interact [within an event program]" (2002). Yet, this reading highlights the differences between Flash Mobs and Smart Mobs even though both can be considered as the technology itself and the use of that technology (Rheingold, 2002). In the end, The History of Flash Mobs raises larger concepts from which this phenomenon grew out of, such as communication, social or cultural studies, thus emphasising the importance of Internet as a new way for human beings to interact and collaborate in real life. REFERENCES Buzi, J. & Wagner, A. (2010) Flash Mobs: A New Social Phenomenon Philadelphia N

REFERENCES (continue): Buzi, J. & Wagner, A. (2010) Flash Mobs: A New Social Phenomenon Philadelphia Neighbors. sct.temple.edu. Accessible from http://sct.temple.edu/blogs/murl/2010/03/30/flash-mobs-a-new-socialphenomenon/ (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Nicholson, J. A. (2005) 'Flash! Mobs in the Age of Mobile Connectivity' The Fibreculture Journal, Iss.6 December. Accessible from http://six.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-030-flash-mobs-in-the-age-of-mobile-connectivity/print/ (accessed on 11th April, 2011) Peterson, N. (2009) Flash Mobs - The New Political Dissent. Accessible from http://www.neilpeterson.com/index.php/2009/11/flash-mobs-the-new-political-dissent (accessed on 12th April, 2011) Rheingold, H. (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. New-York: Basic Books.

As a not fully identified type of platform-a blog or microblog-Tumblr has become the preferred platform to share information and ideas. Unlike Twitter with limited 140 characters post and Facebook that ask you to create virtual identity, Tumblr give a space that is more fun and entertaining. As collaboration tools, Tumblr will be a perfect match with traditional publishing. This article talks about how publisher use Tumblr as an online tools to emerge two-way communication between publishers and readers. Author stated that by posting stories, Tumblr offer opportunity to make it going viral (Mwangaguhunga, 2010). The easiness of Tumblr to be shared around, give a chance that Tumblr will become a great collaboration tools. The five publishers mentioned in the article, each publisher using Tumblr in their own way to fit their printed version. They see Tumblr as a new way of communicating with younger audience and it is how they understand their readers. * Life (http://life.tumblr.com/) * The Village Voice (http://villagevoice.tumblr.com/) * The Atlantic (http://villagevoice.tumblr.com/) * The Economist who always incorporated their magazine with nontraditional elements that exist (http://theeconomist.tumblr.com/) * The New Yorker (http://newyorker.tumblr.com/). The way publisher post a story in Tumblr does not have to be the same type that they published on the printed version. It can be a funny story, a glimpse of what the audience sees on the next edition, a short video of related topics on magazine (which they can show in their magazine) and other type of content that give more experience to readers. Tumblr also can be a good publicity for the publisher, showing that they understand their readers. Mwangaguhunga, R. (2010). 5 Tumblr Microblogs that Works. Retrieved from http://emediavitals.com/content/5-tumblr-microblogs-work

Tumblr is quickly becoming one of the Web's most popular and unique platforms on which to share and discover interesting content of all media. Many popular publishers have flocked to Tumblr to share content in a new way. The article is interesting as it gives an overview of five publishers that use the microblogging platform effectively. Many companies are struggling with their social media strategy and getting it right can be a challenge. In order to succeed with tools like Tumblr, businesses need to understand the audience they are trying to reach and communicate in a language of their customers (Nathan, 2010). The five publishers that Mwangaguhunga (2010) examines know how to communicate in ways that attract their readers. The author suggests that frequency in posting is what attract and engage the community. Microblogging can be an effective tool for businesses if used well. One of the benefits of microblogging that has not received as much attention in the literature is its use for crowdsourcing. Crowds can be more performing and efficient than current organisations. Using a microblogging site like Tumblr for crowdsourcing can be faster, cheaper and more accurate than putting a project in hands of individuals (Kessler, 2010). Tumblr provides a new way of communicating with consumers, thus I find this article valuable as a resource for the project. References Kessler, S. (2010). 5 Creative Uses for Crowdsourcing. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/05/26/creative-crowdsourcing/ Mwangaguhunga, R. (2010). 5 Tumblr Microblogs that Work. Retrieved from http://emediavitals.com/content/5-tumblr-microblogs-work Nathan, L. (2010). How Businesses Can Overcome Social Media Obstacles. Retrieved from http://www.logannathan.com.au/social-media/how-businesses-can-overcome-social-media-obstacles/

From this article I found out that Tumblr as one of the blogging platform is a way for publishers to be more irreverent, funny and make them unique by putting on Tumblr both in their official website or even their blogs. This article mentioned about five publishers that use Tumblr as micro blogging social platform such as Life, The Village Voice, The Atlantic, The Economist and The New Yorker. In here, users can share both information and ideas whereas Tumblr give more space compare to Twitter which limited into 140 characters only. By relating to my own topic, which is talk about the use as well as features of social bookmarking site (delicious), tumblr both features and usefulness support as an online tools to works, create and emerges two-way communication within readers and publishers, it is a great collaboration tools since each of the users would be able to customized their own way, and as for this case as the outcomes, tumblr is a new way of communicating with younger audience, last but not least as for the sources itself, its taken from some media sites named emedia as in credible sources where it based on media organization. By looking at this article I found out several benefits of using tumblr and how the features support on how users - in here are publishers and readers are able to share both information and ideas. References: Mwangaguhunga, R. (2010). 5 Tumblr Microblogs that Works. Retrieved from http://emediavitals.com/content/5-tumblr-microblogs-work

East North Carolina University (ECU) has used the virtual reality game "Second Life" as an education tool for those students who are still in highschool. The college has set up courses through Second Life in which teenagers can have access to as they are physically unable to attend. The article states that one main reason for this type of route is the lack of funding for early-college programs. The site gives a cost effective alternative yet still allows students to engage as though in a real classroom. An article by Dorothy Lepkowska. Which was featured in The Guardian, talks about the site as a means to educate teachers as well. She states "Second Life is an immersive 3D tool and learning environment, so it allows us to present things as we would if we were all in the room. We can take questions, show video clips and the participants can interact with each other but without all the time constraints and costs involved," Again the issue of cost is something that is pushing institutions in this direction. According to a Wire Feed, by Targeted News Service the University of Hawaii has also created their own island within second life. Their university building has been made to look exactly like their school, however they have been able to add extra learning areas than they could in real life. The main point of the article is the fact that Second Life allows those students to participate in a class like environment even if they cant physically attend. This brings me to an article by Mark Blakenship (2011) in which he talks about students being taken to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (a new addition to Second Life). He states "students can join in the digital Globe and get an interactive sense of what it was like see a play there. Inside Second life, Fiebig (the professor) also has students "perform" plays by typing their lines into the game's chat function." It is argued that perhaps students prefer this as the thought of talking in class frightens them, yet th

This article is a great example of online community collaboration, reality meeting the virtual world. There are several reasons for the University employing the use of Second Life technology. The reasons stated by the article were the lack of funds and infrastructure. Collaboration tools must all means provide flexibility when real life fails to do so as demonstrated by the article. The only doubt I have with online learning through Second Life is whether the students are more or less engaged in comparison to on-campus students. As pointed out in the Qualitative findings of students' perception on practice of self-regulated strategies in online community discussion journal article, some students in Malaysia for example regarded the use of the Internet as a distraction to learning, and preferred the more familiar didactic learning environment (Vighnarajah, Wong, & Bakara, 2009). One of the key findings of the study was that student users who were familiar with the Internet found it rather distracting to continue learning once they were online (Vighnarajah et al., 2009). With Second Life as the means to collaborate a community of students for this High School, I wonder if the technology is sufficient considering the environment of this particular online collaborating platform. I also wonder if Second Life as a tool is appropriate for students. My topic is on Organisations and online collaborations and I want to touch base on where online collaboration succeeds. Online collaboration is good for businesses or organisations when participation is often measured by contribution and outcome of a certain task. The same cannot be said for students learning online through Second Life. Reference: Vighnarajah, Wong, S. L., & Bakara, K. A. (2009). Qualitative findings of students' perception on practice of self-regulated strategies in online community discussion. Computers & Education, 53(1), 9. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.d

This article is taken from credible source such as compilation articles based on Proquest - Curtin University library. The main topic of this article is that, Second Life as a cyber world which launced in 2003, is a free client program that enables users to have interaction among one another in form of virtual bodies along with avatars. Specifically this article highlighting on how virtual world is part of online education, where there is a virtual college that designed by combine the convenience of online education along with the atmosphere of a college classroom in 3D version. By relating to my own topic, which is talk about the use as well as features of social bookmarking site (delicious), the virtual world or in here especially Second Life as well provides specific features in order to facilitate the online education, it provides 3D experience which help the users as student to stimulate their experiences and transferring online education in the forms of digital. For examples one of the features in here is when student able to attending their classes, as for the value for the articles itself, it is useful and shows that there a great range of way on how people can use games and social sites merely not just for entertainment but as well as education. References: High Schoolers Attend College in Second Life. (2011). Retrieved April 17, 2011, from http://proquest.umi.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/pqdweb?index=10&did=2253249221&SrchMode=1&sid=14&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1302676765&clientId=22212

Skype is a free download which can be accessed from their website (www.skype.com.au). It is user-friendly, quick and easy to download. Once installed, minimal instruction is required to use Skype. Skype users can be located through searching the email address book, connecting through Facebook or inputting the username into the search box. Once connected with others, Skype has the ability to make audio calls, videoconference, share files and instant message. Video conferencing can be utilised throughout Skype with no charge. Skype allows users to see and hear others, which increases the effectiveness of the communication exchange. In Skype's recent update, screen-sharing functionality was added. This functionality enhances a videoconference by providing users with access to share one another's screens to view presentations or to assist with IT issues. Audio calls can be made between Skype accounts or through VOIP software to landlines or mobiles. The benefit of making calls through Skype is that they can be significantly cheaper than calling through a mobile or landline. Skype call charges start as low as $0.23c per minute. Credit for calls can be loaded onto Skype through the use of a credit card. Instant messaging allows users to talk to one another without the use of audio or video. It can be utilised when working on projects or for an alternative to video/audio in particular when Internet speed may not be high enough for a good connection. Instant messaging can be conducted with just one person or multiple people can use instant messaging simultaneously allowing for people to collaborate on projects. An extra benefit of Skype is file sharing, files can be shared instantaneously with no limit on the file size. This is a great benefit to businesses that may have size restrictions on their work email.

Skype is an excellent software that both individuals and businesses can make use of. Skype's unified communications capabilities make it a useful strategic tool for businesses. While Skype has been successful in the consumer market, it may have had harder time cracking into business market as there are already several competitors. Skype likes to point out that more than 30 percent of its global user base uses the service for business. However, there have been speculations that a greater proportion of business use is overseas and that a much smaller percentage of "business users" have integrated Skype with their office systems (Blackwell, 2009). Blackwell (2009) suggests that the reason why not more businesses use Skype is that call and connection quality are not always as good as they are on public switched telephone network. As Skype works over the open, Internet and peer-to-peer technology help route calls, thus the service may not provide the quality sufficient for business use. Another concern is the security of the Skype service as it uses the public Internet for voice calls (Reardon, 2009). I think that the different collaborative opportunities Skype offers are valuable for small or medium-sized companies looking to keep costs down. Reardon (2009) believes that businesses in general won't get rid of their existing telephone service to use Skype, but some may use it to communicate with employees internally. References Blackwell, G. (2009). The Pros and Cons of Skype for Businesses. Retrieved from http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/buyersguide/article.php/10729_3816716_2/The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Skype-for-Business.htm Reardon, M. (2009). Skype Targets Businesses with New Service. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10201830-92.html

I agreed that skype is an excellent tool, since it is user friendly and widely accessible. Apart from computer usage, it could also be accessed on smart phones, which it is a trend now and still growing on mobile phone usages. I felt that Skype had especially collaborated distant communication; as a student studying away from home country, a budget international communication tool like Skype is demanded. Yet the quality of calls is doubtable as Elin Frustol said, and I found this is a problem with most of online calling tools, such as msn messengers, tango and vibers. I believe that is not only the problem of the tool but also internet accessibility, and computer technology. These issues would need a longer time to fixed, and it may lead to broader usage such as business and government, however the question is would it still be a budget tool by then?

Augar, Raitman and Zhou discuss the benefits of using wikis and online collaboration in teaching and learning. In this article, the authors describe what a wiki is, and how it is used. Originating from the Hawaiian word for quick, (Augar, Raitman & Zhou, 2004, p. 95.) wikis are fully editable websites where content can be edited and added by users. This can also be referred to as "open editing" (Leuf and Cunningham, 2001.) and is a great tool for online collaboration. Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia of information is a popular example of a wiki. It is possible for users to edit and add to the content of Wikipedia allowing knowledge and content to come from many sources. Augar, Raitman and Zhou provide a comparison of a few different wikis and their functionality, including the ability to upload images (not all wikis support this) and their method of tracking users and their contributions to the wiki. This particular function is useful to guage participation of students in an educational sense. As Augar, Raitman and Zhou have concluded through a survey of university students at Deakin, for one particular class, 50% of students were not satisfied with the completely online learning experience (2004, p.98) and in order to foster a more positive learning environment with a higher level of satisfaction for students, an ice breaker acitivity has been employed using an onine wiki to improve participation and collaboration. The ice breaker activity took place over two weeks and required students to answer a series of questions designed to help them get to know their fellow students on a more personal level and to introduce them to how to use the wiki properly. Augar, Raitman and Zhou claim the ice breaker activity was successful is accomplishing this. References: Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comf

Wikis is a truly tools for online collaboration, whereas we as users would be able to visit the page we looking for, able to read it, re-organize and even update the structure or content inside, which is in other words, we would be able to collaborate each other in terms of creating one documents with contributing our thought and list out information inside. This article is one from a good example, it's really focus on how wikis can be use in terms of facilitating online education, the article itself I found it as a credible resource which is based on report from School of Information Technology, It is useful and really explaining on how wikis can be use as online education tools. By looking at the value for the project, we can use wikis as one of the online collaboration tools whenever we need to sharing contents as well as adjusting the content, hence we would be able to contribute our part equally and accessible at all times in any occasion. By relating this article with my article - which is talk about the use and features of social bookmarking site (delicious), wikis as well provides special features in terms of facilitating online collaboration which is same as delicious sites, it is useful, support communication and collaboration among users, accessible and convenient. References: Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILIT

Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 95-104). Perth, 5-8 December. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

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

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

While web 2.0 technologies have been around for awhile now, many organisations are still in an experimental phase. There are all too often rare wins and rare examples of it being used correctly to fulfil a strong business need or solve a business problem. This article argues that organisational collaborative tools such as social intranets etc will not be embraced or used to their full potential if employees do not already communicate with each other - i.e. have a structure, management style or physical layout that supports them to communicate. As the article states, "The existence of collaborative tools does not automatically imply that people will collaborate or collaborate effectively." (A. Broomhall, 2009) This makes sense. In a working and professional environment, most staff are more guarded in their communication (depending on the culture of the organisation of course) and less reluctant to use collaborative tools like they might as strangers on the World Wide Web. If the fundamentals of communication are working well in an organisation and already exist (ie. people have met face to face, have already established communities, have trusted relationships where they share information) they are then more likely to collaborate online. There are several intranet features which can be used to strengthen these communication paths and employee relationships: - staff directory - news channels - social news sites. It is these types of technologies (available on most intranets) which can help encourage the development of communication networks, and in turn support the use of collaborative tools. Reference: Broomhall, A (2009) No collaboration without communications Retrieved from http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_nocollaboration/index.html

Thanks for providing this article, Kristy. I agree with Broomhall that just because collaboration tools have been put in place, it does not guarantee that these tools will be utilised or even used in the manner in which they were intended. However I also don't agree that "if people are not already communicating with each other, then there is little chance they will feel comfortable enough to share their knowledge online." (Broomhall, 2009.) I think that Net 308's Blackboard discussion forums, although not extremely lively, are an example of strangers communicating with each other and sharing knowledge. Successful forums and even groups on Flickr are comprised of those that have not met in real life nor communicated with each other prior to utilising the collaboration tool they are part of. Although I will agree that successful collaboration required the right collaboration tool and proper facilitation of such, the main factor in success or failure of online collaboration comes down to common purpose or interest. Without that fundamental element, at least at the beginning, I believe success to be far fetched and difficult to achieve. I agree that a staff directory would aid in the success of collaboration in the organisation Broomhall refers to in this article. I feel that an ice breaker activity as outlined by Augar, Raitman and Zhou (2004.) of sorts would also benefit. References: Broomhall, A (2009) No collaboration without communications Retrieved from http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_nocollaboration/index.html Augar, N., Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds), Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 95-104). Perth, 5-8 December. http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html

This is an interesting article that brings up some great points on the importance of communication regarding collaboration. I totally agree with the author, communication within an organisation is vital in order to collaborate effectively. The main problem companies experience when implementing online collaboration tools, is the objections many employees have when introduced to these new tools (Foster, 2009). Fear, uncertainty, resistance and concerns are some of the issues companies have to deal with as employees are asked to go from being a passive consumer of online information to becoming a creator of content by posting discussions, comments etc. that anyone can view. Foster (2009) suggests that businesses should spend more time thinking about the impact of these changes on their employees. In order to deal with the different issues employees may have, Foster suggests organisational change management. Like Broomhall, Foster (2009) highlights communication as the common element whether the change is coming from the top of the organization or from the bottom. The article is a useful resource for this project as it focuses on the importance of communication when organisations are implementing collaborative tools. Broomhall (2009) argues that employees need information about internal changes and external influences which may impact their daily work. As Broomhall points out, the existence of collaborative tools does not automatically imply that people will collaborate. References Broomhall, A. (2009). No Collaboration without Communications. Retrieved from http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_nocollaboration/index.html Foster, D. (2009). Collaboration Technology and Organisational Change. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/collaboration/collaboration-technologies-and-organizational-change/

Newsweek decide to use Tumblr as their collaboration tool and this is the reason.

Honestly, we can say that decision to use social media as collaboration tool to achieve marketing goals is still blurred. Business is still experimenting to see how it would work by looking at audience reaction and response. That is also what Newsweek did as explained in this Tumblr post. As Mark Coatney, the senior editor who is in charge with Newsweek Tumblr account, mentioned Tumblr could be the future of magazine journalism (Coatney, 2009). The reason he used Tumblr is not only for mimic the trend among publisher to use social media as collaboration tool, but he see Tumblr as a new way to connect to audience. Various contents that you can post encourage a deeper engagement rather than a 140 character on Twitter. Tumblr which follower can choose to like the post or reblog the post shows how audience is equal with the publisher. Younger audience wants this kind of relationship so they have the sense of ownership to the magazine. This collaboration tool shows how conversation build in the platform build a stronger relationship between publisher and audience. With collaboration, publisher has a chance to have a frequent post or deeper explanation about topics that discussed on the printed version. The ability to personalize Tumblr page and poste different format become the advantages of this platform compare to other social media. Actually, the way stories posted in Tumblr similar to magazine layout, fresh and creative. That why I'm agree with Coatney that Tumblr can be the future of magazine journalism. Coatney, M. (2009). Why We Tumbl. Retrieved from http://newsweek.tumblr.com/post/255742202/why-we-tumbl

I have seen Tumblr used in many different ways, such producing a blog based on photography, fashion or art for example. A lot of these are personal blogs where the person has created the photos or art and is posting it for people to see, but then there are so many blogs which are based on reclogging other people's posts within one of these themes. It was interesting reading this article as being familiar with the use of Facebook and twitter for traditional media companies, I had never thought of Tumblr being used for this. Although as stated in the article, Tumblr does not have nearly as many users as Facebook or Twitter, it has the ability to spread images, text, videos and links for users to see in a much easier way. For example on facebook a link posted would only be seen by those who are a fan of the page, whereas on Tumblr, once something is reblogged it is seen by all of the followers of that person, and if two more people reblog it from there, it is seen by all of their followers too. With Tumblr being a growing platform, media companies have the chance to gain attention from thousands of people from all over the world.

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

As we know that collaboration is one process of participation in a group project or between organizations. This article elaborates the factors of effective influences in developing collaboration process of organizations in order to achieving the desired results for organizations, such as the skills of leadership, communication, sustainability, participation etc. (Hogue, st al, 1995), and internal communication, external communication, membership, and goal setting. (Borden ,1997). The article also explored that the importance of networking collaboration in areas of organizations cooperation and collaborative relationship. I agree with that the building and developing the trust is the vital skill for leaders to nurture the collaborative relationship between organizations. Trust is the basic element for all kinds of collaborative projects. The purpose of the collaboration is what the leaders and stuff in the group seek to create, so ensuring a clear and understood goal for collaborative groups and organizations is also an important issue. In order to establishing a successful collaboration within organizations, trust, freedom with bring different perspectives to bear to solve problems and provide with positive change, and considering of culture and work environment and so on are supportive points to manage the organizations as a successful whole. So, for collaboration to be successful between organizations there must be clarity, direction and communication. Reference The Role of Collaboration in Organizations.(2010). Retrieved from http://collaboration-tools.org/business/the-role-of-collaboration-in-organizations/ Hogue, T. Perkins, D. Clark, R. Bergstrum, A. Slinski, M. & Associates. (1995). Collaboration framework: Addressing community capacity. Columbus, OH: National Network for Collaboration.

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/

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