What: Statistics about who’s online and what they’re doing
Posts to which it is related: Culture Matters In Virtual Teams
Bottom line: A recent report by Pew Online and American Life gives a breakdown by age of Internet users and their activities. Although some may view online activities as strictly for the younger generation, the report shows that Boomers are just as likely as younger Gen X and Gen Y generations to perform certain activities online. Interestingly, email is used by a larger percentage of the older generation and email use is dropping in the younger generation. Younger users are more likely to use the Internet for things like social networking or hanging out in virtual worlds. This could have implications for virtual teams with members or leaders from differing generations, including altering preferences for how to communicate and accomplish work.

What: New York Times article about selectively sharing information on social networking sites.
Posts to which it is related: What President Obama Teaches Us For Leading Virtually (keeping boundaries)
Bottom line: This article touches on an important issue for users of social networking sites–how not to share everything with everyone, or selectively share information with only those who should see it. As a heavy user of Facebook, I am often surprised at people who post their cell phone numbers on wall posts or their street address so that is visible to strangers. I even know of one hiring decision that was made because an inappropriate picture and sexual innuendo was left out in the open on a Facebook profile page–which the candidate directed the potential employer to on his resume.  In an effort to keep traffic high, applications like Facebook and MySpace are now making it easier to manipulate the privacy settings on users’ accounts so professional contacts get professional content and friends get the party photos. While you may have to search out the privacy settings on Facebook and MySpace or spend a little time creating special lists to categorize content, it’s worth the time. You never know who might see that tagged photo of you from Halloween 10 years ago or who might be scanning your contact list for potential clients.

What: Article on a new application for managing team workflows
Posts to which it is related: Emergent Collaboration: The Reason Why Email Should Not Be Used for Collaboration, Freeing Yourself from Email
Bottom line: Smartsheet has introduced an application for managing collaborative team work which it hopes will be the Google of outsourced team management. The new application allows teams to manage projects and things like work flow, project progress, file storage, and discussion threads. Smartsheet has built its collaboration software based on user tests and work done in real groups. A complete relaunch of the product included a scaling down of features, but with attention to how teams actually do work and interact with each other. Special attention was given to allowing teams to use the product even with those who have not yet adopted it. Although Smartsheet is being marketed toward outsourced team projects, it could be promising for helping virtual teams of all sizes and types.