Page 108 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Planning and Managing IT Infrastructure

Notes the mainstay of collaboration tool suites for many years, several emerging tools are spawning
social practices that may prove to be invaluable in bridging more than just the physical distance
between people.

6.1 Collaboration Tools

Information technology can both facilitate and augment the reach and power of collaboration
by providing “collaboration tools.” Collaboration tools are computing systems that include, as
one of their major design goals, features designed to facilitate work that involves more than one
person.
Collaboration refers to all processes where people work together to achieve results. With the
advent of computers and the Internet, many collaboration tools have emerged.

Example: Early collaboration tools include e-mail, bulletin board, internet relay chat,
whiteboard and desktop sharing.
In a collaborative environment a team may be spread out in different locations and work at
different times.
Along one simple axis, these tools can generally be categorised as either Synchronous
collaboration or Asynchronous collaboration.
Synchronous collaboration tools require a team to work at the same time.

Example: Synchronous collaboration tools include instant messaging, application sharing
and whiteboard.
Asynchronous tools allow team to work at different times.

Example: Asynchronous tools include E-mail, bulletin board and web logs.
There are many related terms that are often used in discussions of these tools and their associated
practices; among these:
Social Software
Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW)
Collaborative Technologies
Predicting which communication device/medium will make a good collaboration tool can be a
tricky business. A good tool should
promote communication;
share a diagram, photograph, paper, or similar objects;
allow natural interactions; and

be easy to use and learn.
Beyond these basic and, perhaps, traditional characteristics, today’s collaboration tools enable
persistent micro-interactions—or the sharing of almost trivial updates between collaborators.
These interactions, which might not warrant a phone call or extended conversation, typically
include very minor details about a collaborator’s work or life, allowing for an intimate
knowledge of colleagues over long periods of time. The face-to-face equivalent of this interaction
might come from sharing an office with a colleague for several months.
Collaborators can also share in virtual environments, which are not subject to the physical
constraints present in real life.

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