What: Study that showed that people are prone to lying more in email than through written communication
Posts to Which It Is Related: The Reason Why Email Should Not Be Used For Collaboration, Freeing Yourself From Email

Bottom Line: A study conducted by Rutgers and DePaul Universities studied how email affected communications among 48 graduate students. Students were given a specific amount of money and told they had to split it with a second student in the group. They could split this money with the other student any way they liked. Students were directed to use email or pen and paper to divide the money. Students who used email lied 92% of the time about the amount of money they had while students who used pen and paper lied 64% of the time. Those who used pen and paper were also more generous. The study concluded that people are more apt to lie when using electronic communication then they are through other forms of communication. Since email is widely used in both interoffice teams and virtual teams, the results of this study are troubling. I think it is easier for one to lie through due to the disconnect one feels from another when typing a message as opposed to physically writing the message. Physically writing a letter has elements of yourself in it – your handwriting, etc. You are presenting this unique part of yourself to another, much like you are when you are communicating face to face. Email eliminates the “physical” nature of the communication and makes it easier to lie. Those who commented on the article feel that email communication is overused in the workplace. Communication that would take place in person (and would be more efficient if the message were communicated face to face) is often done through email where the message can be misinterpreted or distorted (or lying can take place). Virtual teams should use other forms of communication to eliminate instances of miscommunication or lying that can occur through email.

What: Nielsen research finding that reported that American cellphone subscribers now text more than they phone
Posts to Which It Is Related:
Bottom Line: In the fourth quarter of 2007, cellphone users texted more than they phoned for the first time. The proliferation of text messaging is something that has always fascinated me. I find myself text messaging things that would be easier said through conversation. Sometimes I would rather not get caught in a conversation with the person so I will text but other times I do it just because I find it easier to communicate that way (although it really is not). This is similiar to emailing in the office when it would be easier to communicate face to face (see above article). Average cellphone users texted 357 messages in a month in comparison to an average of 204 calls in a month. I wonder if the email study I discussed above also holds true for text messages. It seems that as nonverbal forms of communication grow more popular, people (and virtual team members) need to find new ways to make these communications more efficient and less prone to misinterpretation.

What: New York Times article detailing the findings of a human rights group that discovered online surveillance of online chats by the Chinese government
Posts to Which It Is Related: Posts on Collaboration Technology
Bottom Line: A Canadian human rights group discovered a surveillance system that monitors the text chatting of Chinese Skype users. When certain politically charged keywords are sent from one user to another through the Chinese version of Skype, the message gets flagged and sent to a central server. The server collects the whole conversation and also the information about the person who sent the message. The servers also act as a means of filtering conversation and filtering messages that have certain words in them. The human rights group was able to hack into the system since it was not configured correctly. Why is this relevant for virtual teams?  For one, it shows that while virtual communication can have many benefits it can also be used for negative purposes. Virtual communication is not hard to monitor and many times leaves a record for tech saavy hackers to read or trace. It also highlights the fact that unlike face to face communication, virtual communication needs to take advantage of technology to occur. Virtual communication is subject to the software that is being used. If the software creators place restrictions on what can be said or write code in the software that automatically sends messages to another server, casual users will have no way of knowing this. Being at the mercy of software for communication is yet another challenge inherent in virtual teams. Finally, the article highlights the importance of keeping data encrypted and how easy it can be for someone to find information when virtual communication takes place. Businesses should make sure that their IT security is top notch; if not, competitors can easily get their hands on sensitive information. Virtual teams are more vulnerable to this type of hacking and need to be extra cautious.