Virtual Collaboration: If You Can't Work Side-by-Side

How to Save the World 『Virtual Collaboration: If You Can't Work Side-by-Side』より。

The Idea: What do you do if you need or want to collaborate, but you can't do so in person? What purposes are best served by weblogs, wikis, and other types of online collaboration tools, spaces and media?

There are three levels of collaboration based on duration of contact:

* Conversations: Where you're in contact just once, or a few times, discussing a particular subject or group of subjects.
* Projects: Where you're in contact as often as necessary to complete a project.
* Alliances: Where you're in contact in multiple conversations and on multiple projects, working together for an indefinite period of time.

A collaborative conversation may be provoked by an interesting or important idea or an urgent one-off need for information or assistance. Much of the time spent in business is consumed in consulting with others, in canvassing for ideas or suggestions or comments, and in making decisions on what something means or how to respond to it. These are generally quick, collaborative conversations.

A variety of tools have been developed for more enduring project collaborations and alliance collaborations. Because they tend to involve more participants than conversations do, the logistics get tougher and the effectiveness of these tools gets more challenging. And the threshold point for giving up on the viability of in-person collaboration rises dramatically. I think this is an absolutely critical point.

Tool / Medium	Collaborative Advantages	Collaborative Disadvantages	Best Suited to Collaborative:
weblog	easy to post & comment; content is subscribable/ publishable	participation limited to comments	Conversations
wiki	anyone can contribute content	harder to learn; can be easily sabotaged; inelegant appearance	Projects / Alliances
whiteboard	real-time; anyone can contribute content	content only persists for duration of call; possible firewall issues	Conversations / Projects
document-sharing	can be real time; anyone can contribute content	possible firewall issues; attention is focused on a document	Conversations / Projects
IM/skype/phone/ e-mail/ videoconferencing	real-time conversations; audio/visual context; speed	content only persists for duration of call	Conversations
mindmaps	shows and documents consensus	can't capture detail	Projects
discussion forums	threading of comments; content is subscribable/ publishable	limited contextual knowledge of participants; can attract undisciplined behaviours; threads can be hard to follow	Conversations
community of practice/ interest spaces	organization; defined membership; multiple collaborative tools	harder to learn; formality can reduce intimacy and level of participation	Projects / Alliances
personal e-mail groups	flexible; personal; easy to use	e-mail overload/spam; threads get lost or hard to navigate and follow	Projects / Alliances
social networking tools	large number of members; good way to find collaborators	most actual collaboration is done using other tools and media	Finding collaborators
in-person collaboration	easy; real-time; context-rich; flexible	expensive; time-consuming	All of the above if time & cost permits