What: CNN article “Virtual watercooler makes workplace more fun.”
Posts to which it is related: Rethinking the Value of Virtual Worlds for Virtual Team Collaboration, Building Trust in Virtual Teams
Bottom Line:As companies get larger and virtual teams establish their presence as the norm in large companies, it is getting harder for colleagues to remain connected and “have fun” with each other, reducing productivity. To remedy this, technology researchers are creating software that will replicate old fashioned office interactions for virtual teams by borrowing elements from video games and social networking websites. One such program is IBM’s Beehive, an internal social network where IBM employees can share pictures of their families and personal videos while describing their expertise. Intel is exploring virtual world collaborative technology, which other companies have successfully leveraged in the past. The author thinks that virtual team collaboration will become more prevalent in businesses as technology gets more sophisticated. Virtual team collaboration through visual interaction also has the ability to transform office politics as the technology has been shown to make timid workers more outspoken. The article concludes by saying that further research needs to be conducted to see how effective this technology would be, as trust in virtual teams may be a more important factor than technology.

What: TechNewsWorld article “Wikis: The Crown Jewels of Collaboration.”
Posts to which it is related: Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology
Bottom Line: Managers are finally learning that wikis are a simple yet powerful tool for aiding in collaboration and boosting in business productivity. Wikis are “interactive web sites that allow multiple writers and editors to produce and distribute content collaboratively.” In 2006, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers proclaimed the advantageousness of wikis in virtual team project management by noting that they were useful in organizing, tracking, and publishing work. They also noted that wikis were flexible and could adapt to the project’s needs as problems arise. Wikis have been one key factor in the success of open source software projects such as Ubuntu, in which thousands of collaborators from around the world must work together on a software project. How do wikis work in the collaborative process? The author states that wikis “make processes explicit and transparent, which gives managers visibility into their business and, more importantly, gives individual employees a clear sense of where their work fits into the big picture.” Wikis also boost productivity and are much more useful than using “older” collaborative technology such as email.

What: Insurance and Technology article “In an Increasingly Global World, Insurers Who Leverage Telepresence and Videoconferencing’s Capabilities Put Themselves Ahead of the Curve.”
Posts to which it is related: Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology
Bottom Line: Article discusses the benefits of virtual collaboration through video conferencing in the insurance industry. Insurers are now finding more ways to utilize various virtual team technologies for a variety of tasks since these technologies can save time and money. Some other benefits the article discusses are improved communication, the removal of physical boundaries, and giving experts the ability to be “present” at the scene of an accident. However, some insurers are not leveraging the technology because of a “knowledge deficiency,” which serves to stress the importance of engaging management in championing collaborative technology. Technology that is easy to use would also help ensure the adoption of virtual team technology. Long term adoption can be driven by cross platform protocols and integration with other collaborative tools.