What: WSJ article on how text messaging may prevent languages from fading Posts to which it is related: None
Bottom line:  Language advocates worry that languages may not stay relevant if they are not used to send text messages on a cellphone. However, texting on a cellphone can be cumbersome because one has to make multiple taps on keys to select some letters. This becomes even harder in languages with more than the 26 letters of English. For instance, typing ‘Namaste,’ which means hello in Hindi, can take 21 key presses. The solution to this problem is predictive text. With predictive text, a phone guesses what a user is trying to type, thereby cutting down the keystrokes required. For instance, ‘Namaste’ would require six key presses only. In 2006, cellphone users in India with predictive text averaged 70 messages a week compared to 18 messages sent by those without predictive text on their cellphones. Currently predictive text on cell phones is limited to 80 out of 6,912 languages in the world, according to the article.

What: Journal of Applied Psychology article about teleworking and professional isolation
Posts to which it is related: Confessions of a Telecommuter,  So You Think You’d Like to Telecommute, Leading in Face-to-face Versus Virtual Teams
Bottom line: The authors surveyed 261 professional-level teleworkers at a large corporation (80,000 workers) to study the effects of professional isolation, which is defined as a state of mind that one is out of touch with others in the workplace, on job performance and turnover intentions. Professional isolation led to lower job performance and lower turnover intentions. The effect on turnover intentions was contrary to expectations. The authors argue that this unexpected effect may be due to professionally isolated teleworkers losing faith in their skills and knowledge and their ability to find alternative employment. Another possible explanation may be that teleworkers face family or dual-career constraints due to which they telecommute as a way to maintain their job. Or it may be that those who telecommute enjoy its benefits more fully, so that despite professional isolation, they don’t seek employment elsewhere. The authors report other findings too. For instance, professional isolation led to even lower job performance for those who spent greater time teleworking and lesser time interacting face-to-face.  In other words, the negative effect of professional isolation on job performance reduced for those who teleworked less as well as for those who engaged in extensive face-to-face. To reduce professional isolation, the authors make several suggestions. One of the suggestions is to include structuring activities between coworkers to ensure sufficient levels of task and social exchanges, so as to build and strengthen interpersonal connections while achieving work objectives.

What: Virtualization Journal article on the development of virtual war rooms to help distributed teams get their work done
Posts to which it is related: Wonderland: A Tool for Online Collaboration
Bottom line: To help workers in dispersed teams collaborate effectively without getting drowned in emails and meetings, a new class of collaboration technology is emerging. This technology combines a variety of applications, such as “presence” technologies (e.g., instant messaging), VOIP, and webcam video with virtual war rooms to create an intuitive virtual operations center, similar to a 3-D NASA control room. In addition to these tools, workers also have access to CAD, ERP, or other applications that they need to get their job done. According to the article, such an environment allows workers to quickly drill into data and accomplish their work in a focused manner.