What: Statistics about who’s online and what they’re doing Posts to which it is related: Culture Matters In Virtual Teams Bottom line: A recent report by Pew Online and American Life gives a breakdown by age of Internet users and their activities. Although some may view online activities as strictly for the younger generation, the report shows that Boomers are… Read more →
During the last few years, I have noticed certain changes or patterns in email communication that can potentially damage virtual work. I am afraid that these patterns may be on their way to becoming a part of email communication culture. Many email users may be falling into these usage patterns without realizing their potentially damaging effects. With the idea of… Read more →
What: CNN.com numbers about how people connected to the inauguration of President Obama. Posts to which it is related: What President Obama Teaches Us for Leading Virtually Bottom line: The numbers are staggering, and that’s a good sign by my reckoning. There are two things that I took away from this article. First, not only are massive number of people… Read more →
I watched in awe from early this morning as the world got ready for the inauguration of Barack Obama as President. I felt joy and hope as I read my dad’s email this morning saying that he was so excited to see the moment that he had dreamed of, but thought might never come in his country. And I… Read more →
What: WSJ article on how text messaging may prevent languages from fading Posts to which it is related: None Bottom line: Language advocates worry that languages may not stay relevant if they are not used to send text messages on a cellphone. However, texting on a cellphone can be cumbersome because one has to make multiple taps on keys to… Read more →
The Leading Virtually team regards virtual collaboration technology as a new wave of options for human interaction. Much like the advent of the Internet changed the way we communicate and interact, our growing ability to connect in virtual worlds has a similar potential to drive social change. In our modern world it’s easy to forget that at other times in human… Read more →
What: NYTimes article about Microsoft’s research in emerging markets Post to which it is related: Leading Virtual Communities: Do We Have the Answers? Bottom line: This article talks about some of the projects Microsoft teams are working on in emerging markets such as India. I love the idea of applying technology in creative ways to help social problems in countries that don’t have… Read more →
Surinder recently passed an article along to me documenting a case study of an asynchronous online role-play used in a university setting. The article set my thoughts in motion about the Leading Virtually blog and my own thinking regarding training, leadership development, and learning in virtual environments in general. We at Leading Virtually obviously believe that virtual teams can be… Read more →
What: New York Times article about Vivaty’s 3-D virtual scenes for web pages Posts it is related to: The Future of Virtual Teams: Collaboration in 3D Web Bottom line: Virtual worlds are going hyper-personal and it appears there is plenty of interest from users. Vivaty is now offering a widget that allows users to create personal 3-D scenes that can… Read more →
I recently read an article by Line Dube and Daniel Robey entitled “Surviving the paradoxes of virtual teamwork”. The authors, through their research, determined five paradoxes that are prevalent in the realm of virtual teamwork. They then made some suggestions for dealing with each paradox. In the rest of this post I will: List the authors’ five paradoxes and their… Read more →