What: David Pogue’s NY Times Blog Post on basic technology tips. Posts to Which it is Related: Improving Virtual Team Leadership Using Technology Bottom Line: A significant contributor to a virtual team’s success is members’ familiarity with technology. Many virtual team leaders tend to assume, oftentimes inaccurately, that team members possess basic computer skills which would allow them and the… Read more →
This week I read an interesting research article (Perceived Proximity in Virtual Work: Explaining the Paradox of Far-but-Close) that talked about perceived proximity. The authors (Wilson, O’Leary, Metiu, and Jett) define perceived proximity as two or more individuals having the feeling of being close, regardless of physical distance between them. Often, one assumes that physical proximity and perceived proximity are highly correlated, but the… Read more →
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… Read more →
The WSJ published an interesting article on Monday (September 29, 2008) about Preston Fosback, a 16-year old, who engaged people all over the world to monitor, via the Internet, the Obama-Biden sign outside his front yard to make sure it wasn’t stolen. The people who monitor the sign essentially form a virtual community or a virtual group who are unlikely to ever… Read more →
What: Information Week article about the evolution of Second Life. Posts To Which It Is Related: Bottom Line: This is a great article for the look it takes at the business side and the evolution of Second Life. Despite the “hype bubble” and its subsequent burst, Second Life is intriguing because of its novelty and potential. Perhaps figuring out how to make… Read more →
Every once in a while, you come across something that defies the conventional wisdom that you need face-to-face contact to build strong social relationships (see a recent article that relies on this wisdom). A New York Times article “After Blogger’s Plane Crash, Virtual Becomes Personal” that was published on September 6, 2008 is one such item. In this post, I… Read more →
What: NYTimes article about Peek, an email-only mobile device. Posts To Which It Is Related: Time to Think Differently About Collaboration in Virtual Worlds Bottom Line: This article is mostly a review of Peek, a mobile device that is relatively limited since it only does no-frills email. However, what’s more interesting than the review is the author’s mention of a… Read more →
What: Researchers have found that racial bias exists in virtual worlds according to an article in ITNews Posts To Which It Is Related: The Mind Has A Body Of Its Own Bottom Line: A study done in the virtual world There.com suggests that the psychological implications of race in the real world also impact the virtual space. When a study… Read more →
I recently read a NY Times article by Clive Thompson about the social effects of information sharing through sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. Posting frequent small tidbits of information about oneself is often perceived as a useless act. But Thompson points out some of the really useful social outcomes that can result from these acts of self-disclosure. I cover the following points: Ambient… Read more →
What: Blog post from the Institute for Corporate Productivity about virtual team trends. Posts to which it is related: About LeadingVirtually.com Bottom Line: 67% of 278 companies responding to a survey by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) foresee their reliance on virtual teams increasing over the next three years. This number (i.e., the percentage indicating greater reliance on virtual… Read more →