"Better, Together using Technology"

Jason Reed

In practice the use of online collaboration tools is not widespread despite the technology being established and offering significant benefits. I provide focused advice and information that will improve adoption by raising awareness of practical ways of doing your work online - real work, with your colleagues, supported by technology.

"In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed."- Charles Darwin

Getting Started

If you are ready to get going the steps I suggest are:

1. Identify where you can gain some benefit and improvement?
2. Identify who you will collaborate with some existing colleagues or a new work opportunity?
3. Consider how you will:
• meet with your colleagues
• share information and work at different times
• build a way of working as a team

On this site:

Meet effectively with others in different locations

Share work with others regardless of time and location

Be part of a team without sharing an office

Find work (or workers) online

On this page:

Contents

1. 1 My Collaboration Model
2. 2 Benefits of Online Collaboration
3. 3 Further Information

My Collaboration Model

The three functional areas of collaboration I define as:

Working - (teams at different times and locations)

Being – (real-time presence tools - Instant Messaging (IM)

Meeting - (real-time web conferencing, editing documents, brain storming etc online)

 

Benefits of Online Collaboration

Improving the way that people work together, meet together and are together will bring many benefits:

• Better connectivity with our colleagues
• Improved innovation in processes, products and the way we do things together
• Better results
• Saving travel costs
• Saving travel time
• Reducing environmental impact
• Reducing requirement for office space
• Improved business continuity – knowledge workers can function almost anywhere
• Flexibility for employees

Further Information