Collaboration

Do we ever have to leave the home? For me, it doesn't seem like it. I can grocery shop, pay bills, meet with my children's teachers, attend classes, and collaborate on new projects at work, all from my computer. I can even attend business meetings or participate in group ventures online. With the development of various collaborative tools, teamwork has never been more convenient.

I am currently working on an interesting project, a social media proposal. A few of my associates and I have used chat forums, emails, and bookmarking sites to exchange ideas for the drafting of our independent proposals. We all work from our own home base and have never met in person but are working on the same task.

Our first attempts to meet online and share ideas were via a chat room. A few participants, from different regions of the state, logged on to the chat but we had some technical complications. Our input was not transmitted immediately so it was a lengthy process to exchange information. We were still able to discuss initial design ideas of the project and how to package them.

Our second attempts via chat room worked much better and it proved to be more productive. Again, there were only a few participants, but we discussed strategies, missions, and tools that would help us design our proposals.

After our chat sessions, one of my colleagues and I discussed the collaborative process a bit further via email. We decided that we might be able to share pertinent information, expertise and research more effectively through email and/or telephone. We decided that there was an enormous amount of research that needed to be done for this project and that we could allocate the tasks. We divided up the topics and initially sent one another the links that were applicable. We then decided that using a bookmarking site (delicious) was a better option.

We eventually added the convenience of an "old" communication method, the telephone, to brainstorm about possibilities and strategies. We were looking for a way to be more efficient with our limited time and so it made sense to discuss them in a more conventional way. We both contributed a great deal to the idea sessions and it helped me formulate my outline.

We also shared our design skills for the proposal. I created a new corporate logo and my associate designed the marketing materials. Together, we created the branding elements to use within our own projects.

Although I can't speak for my colleague, the collaborative experience was beneficial for me and my efforts. There may have even been more information and skills to exchange had we not had strict time constraints.

In the future, writeboard and co-ment could be new Web 2.0 tools for collaboration purposes on this type of project. I had the chance to explore these just a few days ago for a different assignment. I was easily able to update and modify existing information. Collectively, a new document was designed for communication purposes.

Overall, I firmly believe that a team effort produces better content than that of a single person. Many new Web 2.0 capabilities have been created with this in mind, so that many individuals can work together for a joint purpose.

collaboration image from istock photo