The Leading Virtually Digest, July 18, 2008

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What: Availability of browser-based virtual worlds from The Electric Sheep Company, Vivaty, and Google.
Posts to which it is related: Wonderland: A Tool for Online Collaboration, Rethinking the Value of Virtual Worlds for Virtual Team Collaboration, The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web
 Bottom Line: New web browser-based virtual worlds make it easier for virtual team members to collaborate. While Google’s Lively and Vivaty require you to download special software to your PC, WebFlock does not (provided you have Adobe Flash on your machine). Read more about WebFlock at WashingtonPost.com and about Vivaty at TechCrunch.com.

What: Virtual Leadership Survey Findings from The Institute for Corporate Productivity (free registration required to see the findings).
Posts to which it is related: Welcome to LeadingVirtually.com
Bottom Line: The findings from responses by 543 organizations reinforce the purpose of this blog. Key findings: (a) there is significant room for improvement in virtual team leadership, (b) leadership development programs need to incorporate the development of virtual team leadership, and (c) there is considerable variability in how leaders recover when hiccups occur in their virtual teams. We thank NetAge Endless Knots for leading us to the survey findings.

What: Findings from the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California about the use of the Internet by older Americans.
Posts to which it is related: None
Bottom Line: Contrary to what one would expect, Americans who are 50+ use the Internet at levels comparable to users who are decades younger. The study compared use of the Internet for checking news, participation in online communities, social activism, online gaming, buying online, maintaining social relationships, instant messaging, and video downloading. Except for instant messaging and video downloading, older users engage in the above activities at about the same or higher level than younger users. Another finding: email users over 70 favor faster replies than users in the 12 to 50 age group. Since I don’t appreciate when my emails go into a black hole, I should be communicating more often with older people!

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Surinder Kahai is an Associate Professor of MIS and Fellow of the Center for Leadership Studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. He has a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay), an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Michigan. Surinder has an active research program on leadership in virtual teams, computer-mediated communication and learning, collaboration in virtual worlds, CIO leadership, and IT alignment. His research has been published in several journals including Data Base for Advances in Information Systems, Decision Sciences, Group & Organization Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management Information Systems, Leadership Quarterly, and Personnel Psychology. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of Group and Organization Management, IEEE-TEM, and the International Journal of e-Collaboration. He co-edited a Special Issue of Organizational Dynamics on e-leadership and a Special Issue of International Journal of e-Collaboration on Virtual Team Leadership. Surinder has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Surinder has spoken on and consulted with several organizations in the U.S. and abroad on the topics of virtual team leadership, e-business, and IS-business alignment, and IS strategy and planning

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