What: Research article on communication in virtual product development teams
Posts it is related to: Freeing Yourself from Email, The Evolution of Harmful Email Habits, How do I begin to Improve the Functioning of my Virtual Team?
Bottom line: The authors of the article studied members of virtual teams engaged in new product development. Responses from 184 team members spread over 15 teams from three organizations were analyzed to investigate the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Based on their findings, the authors offer the following guidelines that leaders of virtual teams should find useful. First, don’t just simply make ICTs available to team members. Training is critical but the training should go beyond teaching how to use any given ICT. Instead, team members should be provided knowledge about why an ICT is useful and when it is most appropriate to use it (see Betsy’s post in which she discusses different ICTs and their appropriateness). Second, members of virtual teams should establish standards for availability and acknowledgment of communications.  Third, virtual teams should try to use synchronous communication for convergence and social/relational tasks. Lastly, virtual team members should be encouraged to agree on a plan of ICT use and take responsibility for prioritizing communication to enable effective use and to avoid information overload. In the past, we have strongly recommended the use of a team compact. A good team compact would help a virtual team address the last three guidelines made by the article’s authors.

What: NY Times article on some of the lesser-known projects from Google Labs
Posts it is related to: None
Bottom line: While most Internet users know of Google’s search product,  many may not be aware of interesting products that have rolled out of Google Labs. Google Labs is a web site where Google employees post their half-baked creations and invite the public to try them out. Some of the Google Lab products have gone on to become real Google services (e.g., Google Eearth, Gmail, Google Docs, etc.). In this article, David Pogue presents some of the projects that he thinks are lesser known. Here are a couple that I found to be new or somewhat new: Quick Search Box (this is for Mac users) and Google Sets (I had forgotten this one). There is another one: 800-GOOG-411 (for finding phone numbers – it is indespensible when you are traveling). My son uses it and he helped us locate important numbers the last time he traveled with us. Works like a charm.

What: NY Times article about experts believing that we need a new Internet
Posts it is related to: None
Bottom line: A new Internet may be on its way. Security and privacy on the Internet have become so compromised that many experts believe it is time to start over and build a new Internet. It is not clear at this time what this new Internet would look like. The article indicates that ‘one alternative would, in effect create a “gated community” where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety,’ with the current Internet ending up as the ‘bad neighborhood of cyberspace.’ Despite  tremendous amount money being spent on computer security (the computer security industry reached $79 billion in revenues last year), most networks remain vulnerable.  Funded by federal research dollars, scientists are collaborating with the industry to figure out the best way to start over. Stanford researchers are creating a network that will quietly slide underneath today’s Internet. In a few months time, this network will run on eight campus networks around the US. According to the article, the Stanford project will ‘equip  software and hardware designers with a toolkit to make security a more integral part of the network and ultimately give law enforcement officials more effective ways of tracking criminals through cyberspace.’