Research Topic: Virtual Collaboration

Virtual Collaboration: The use of IT tools to allow for the sharing of information among others to produce a shared outcome.

Virtual definition:

Computing - not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so.

1) the action of working with someone to produce or create something

2) traitorous cooperation with an enemy

Outcomes:

We will explore the common and most likely used tools used in daily virtual collaboration in modern business environments. Our concentration will be on the 'topical' tools, representing the broad sector of specific application areas with emphasis on class leader examples. There by all means are not the only forms of VC - but represent the most commonly used applications of day-to-day virtual collaboration.

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Readings:

These are some suggested reading to get further information about what we will be discussing in our presentation. There is a lot of information here; we suggest glancing through some of the basic product information and not reading every complex detail. It would be better to read a little of everything than to get stuck on one topic - but be sure you are comfortable with the idea and examples of each topic however, as each represents a class of collaborative tool widely (and likely) used in your future industry.

1) Email - There are dozens of email clients, and just as mail mail servers and portals. We will discuss the industry leader MS Exchange, and collaborative issues regarding email.

Suggested readings are:

2) Instant Messaging - Widely used as a replacement daily meetings, IM and its variant systems allow for on demand communications:

• Windows Live Messenger: MS Messenger Please explore the features and options

• Skype: http://skype.com/features/ Please explore the features and options

• How it works: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/instant-messaging.htm

3) Wikis - An online document editing tool, a form of the wiki engine drives the WetPaint site used for this class.

• Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

4) Video Conferencing - Common methods of holding face to face or multi-user discussions.

• Polycom: Polycom Conferencing Whitepaper (sorry, some basic info required to read)

• Skype: Skype Video Review

• iChat: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat.html

• Windows Net Meeting: Now called Windows Meeting Space

5) Share Documentation Portals - Shared collaboration environments which allow for larger comprehensive projects.

• MS Sharepoint: Server 2007

• ProjectSpaces: http://www.projectspaces.com/

• OpenSource Alternatives: http://www.alfresco.com/about/
  
  

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Presentation Files:

Files are located on remote server and linked. PPT file is 6.1mb, pdf is 324kb (requires Acrobat 6 or later).

Powerpoint 2003/4: <file>

Adobe pdf: <file>

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Team Members: