What: Information Week article about the evolution of Second Life.
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Bottom Line: This is a great article for the look it takes at the business side and the evolution of Second Life.  Despite the “hype bubble” and its subsequent burst, Second Life is intriguing because of its novelty and potential.  Perhaps figuring out how to make use of this potential is taking longer than the media’s attention span.  I was especially interested in the way SL’s new CEO has categorized the primary uses of Second Life.  In this taxonomy lies some important information about the directions SL might/will take.  Companies always want to harness the business uses of something new, but there is a lot of potential in SL for applications and uses that might not be business-focused.  The core set of users and the constant evolution of what’s happening in SL is hard for firms to harness or benefit from, and yet there are great connections being made between individuals.  It’s clear that we still have to figure out what to do with this new technology, and that seems to be the focus of the new CEO.

What: MarketWatch article on success factors for performance in virtual teams
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Bottom Line: This article highlights nine factors that seem to set high performing virtual teams apart from those that are less successful, according to research done by OnPoint Consulting (we are proud to point out that many of these factors are points we have also highlighted as critical to virtual team performance).  They include initiative (motivation), shared leadership, trust among members, feedback among members, good collaboration, helping one another, and high level of effort.  The article also discusses the need for there to be processes of shared decision making and problem solving in place in teams.  In virtual teams this is often dependent on collaboration technologies in place, since decision making is very dependent on quality information.  Another factor that is often overlooked is that team members understand how their efforts contribute to the success of the organization.  This is still a difficult balancing act for virtual teams and their leaders, but it’s great to see more research being done to guide virtual teams.

What: Two articles pointing out the dangers of popular communication technologies – one from the NY Times, one from the LA Times.
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Bottom Line: Leading Virtually, like many others, tends to highlight how technology can be useful to people for efficiency and making connections.  These two articles remind us that they still depend on the human user.  For example, becoming engrossed in text messages or phone calls can cause a person to forget about immediate environmental factors such as cars or telephone poles.  Unfortunately, use of mobile technology is believed to have increased injuries quite a bit.  This raises an interesting point that it’s hard to focus on both the virtual environment and the physical environment simultaneously.  (be careful, everyone)