Online Collaboration

"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:

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)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

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

The “biggest challenge” is enabling people to make the habit shift to use online collaboration.

Further Information

This site is run by Jason Reed. I am committed to providing impartial advice about online collaboration. I will suggest tools that I believe are really useful, there are lots of tools out there the key to success is having a go.

I blog my on going online collaboration experiences at:

http://onlinecollaborationconsultant.blogspot.com/

I have developed a course that is available for others to teach and can be found at:

http://onlinecollaborationcourse.blogspot.com/

For more information about me, my profile is available at:

http://www.jasonreed.co.uk/

I've hopefully kept things simple by picking out some useful tools that you can get going with. The intention is to develop valuable content but not overload with information.

Please contact me If you have any questions or suggestions or if you require consultancy, coaching or training to develop online collaboration for you, your team or organisation. I am also available to facilitate online collaboration.

Notes on links

I place links regardless of an affiliate relationship in the place I view is relevant. I will place affiliate links on this site where available, please click them if you are interested

For the most comprehensive list of online tools please visit:

http://www.mindmeister.com/12213323/best-online-collaboration-tools-2009-robin-good-s-collaborative-map

Other useful links:

BNET - The Reality of Collaboration Tools

Virtual Teams - Jill Nemiro

Accenture on Elastic Organisations

FT on Connectivity

"Half an Hour" blog article about the cloud and collaboration

Virtual Classroom Review

Web Conferencing Research

Credits

Working_Together_Teamwork_Puzzle_Concept.jpg by lumax arts