What: A New York Times article about Barack Obama’s use of social networking to create a virtual organization to help his campaign.
Posts to which it is related: Improving Virtual Team Performance Using Technology
Bottom Line: Chris Hughes, one of the founders of the popular online social network Facebook, is in charge of Barack Obama’s social networking campaign. This campaign is centered around http://my.barackobama.com. This “new-media” campaign has allowed Obama’s team to reach millions of supporters and organize political campaigns among volunteers in a virtual setting. A forum for networking a national campaign was created on a local level, a feat that could only be accomplished by using the internet and virtual contact. As the article states, “Mr. Obama’s social network [mirrors] the off-line world the same way that Facebook seeks to, because supporters would foster more meaningful connections by attending neighborhood meetings and calling on people who were part of their daily lives. The Internet served as the connective tissue.”

What: A WSJ blog post about Second Life avatars being used in an IBM – created virtual world, a first in cross-program avatar integration.
Posts to which it is related: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web
Bottom Line: In the past, various virtual worlds, such as Second Life and Wonderland, have remained exclusive and separate to its users; having an account or presence in one world meant that you would have to create a completely different presence if you wanted to participate in another virtual world. The development of a business presence in one virtual world often meant that a large amount of resources had to be devoted exclusively to that virtual world platform. With the ability to have one unified presence among various virtual worlds, virtual worlds may be able to expand beyond a niche medium and become more widespread. The blog posting goes on to say that as “interchanges of avatars and their associated creations become commonplace, more companies should be able to reuse animated storefronts, recreation areas and other digital assets they create-and won’t worry about investing too much time and money in a service that could be linked to the fortunes of this or that startup.” This will expand the use of virtual worlds for virtual team meetings.

What: A WSJ blog post about how personalized emails can be “creepy” and ineffective if a strong relationship is not established first.
Posts to which it is related: Digest on Email, Email Etiquette: The Thank You Email
Bottom Line: Marketers have often believed that a personalized email message is a great way to complete a sale. A new study shows that while some types of personalization in an email can be helpful (like including the recipient’s name), other types can be off -putting. However, the types of personalization that are regarded as creepy diminish as a stronger relationship is established between the two parties. The connection with virtual teams? A virtual team leader trying to become too personal with members early on in the life of the virtual team can be ineffective and actually hurt relationship development in the virtual team.