What: NYTimes Maureen O’Dowd column on outsourcing in the news industry.
Post to which it relates: Culture Matters in Virtual Teams, Implicit Communication and Culture: What it Means for Leading Virtual Teams, Promoting Cooperation Among Subgroups in Virtual Teams, So Far and Yet So Near
Bottom line:  O’Dowd talks about a couple in Pasadena, CA who run a small newspaper.  Their staff are all based in India – they have outsourced the research and writing of their paper.  At first critics called this idea ridiculous, but other major news organizations are now looking into similar models.  In fact, one organization is considering whether all the papers in their group can be clustered for efficiency with the use of virtual technology.  An interesting point in the article is when the wife of this Pasadena couple says that she’s a little conflicted about giving the work to non-Americans, but believes in the idea.  This seems to be a common obstacle for people in thinking about new ways of doing work, and one that managers of virtual teams must face on a regular basis.  Also interesting is that the couple had to invest in training early in the outsourcing because of the cultural divide (e.g., Indian employees thought the Rose Bowl might be a culinary event), but seem to believe that initial investment paid off.  This too might be a common experience among managers using virtual collaboration tools.

What: BMJ article about how happiness spreads “contagiously” through social networks (see also as covered by NPR, Fox News, and Newsweek).
Post to which it relates: Spread Your Virtual Smile, Really; Fostering Ambient Awareness in Virtual Teams.
Bottom line: The authors’ 20-year study compellingly demonstrates that happiness tends to spread through social networks in a way that is described as “contagious”.  Being more central to a network was related to individual happiness, and both direct and indirect ties were important for the spread of happiness.  So why am I including it in this digest?  There is one sentence in the BMJ article’s discussion section that says that “happiness requires close physical proximity to spread”.  This might be true since the study occurred over a period of 20 years; changing technology has only recently made it easy to feel close even when geographically far away (at least for most people).  With evidence that ambient awareness exists in virtual social networks, it seems likely that happiness can spread via virtual social networks as well.  Perhaps this research could be expanded to test whether this is true.

What: NextGov.com article about the successful use of wikis during the Russia-Georgia conflict in August 2008.
Post to which it relates: Freeing Yourself From Email, Emergent Collaboration: The Reason Email Should Not Be Used for Collaboration
Bottom line: This article highlights how many military decision makers are embracing virtual technologies such as wikis to more effectively deal with crises.  It’s clear that communication is crucial when quickly responding to a crisis, but security is also necessary.  These technologies are much more effective for communication than email (the article notes the reduced use of email when wikis were used) and can still be secure.  This seems to be an interesting spread of this technology into a somewhat new arena.  Perhaps we will see virtual technology encouraged not only by the market (corporations) but also by government use (and funding?).

What: Google blog article about the unveiling of video chat within Gmail.
Post to which it relates: Are “Casual” Virtual Team Participants Endangering Virtual Teams?
Bottom line: This isn’t the newest news there is – this application apparently went live around Nov 11.  Nevertheless, it is digest-worthy that Google is making virtual communication and collaboration even easier.  The blog post points out that chat is very useful, but not always the best way to communicate.  For example, if a topic is complex, or if joint decision making is required, chatting (IMing) might not be as effective as speaking.  I think this is important not only for business applications, but also for social connection.  The Leading Virtually team have started to pay attention to a new wave of people using virtual technologies for non-business reasons.  Since this application is from Google, it seems likely to spread in popularity like wildfire.