Where do you see the future of e-collaboration going?
E-Collaboration, which can be defined as the process of individuals using electronic means to fulfill tasks in a cooperative manner, has undergone numerous changes over the years. In the earlier years, text-based tools in the form of emails were the most common implementation of e-collaboration. In addition to this, e-collaboration was mostly restricted to large scientific research institutes. Over the years, this has changed as organizations and individuals alike have begun to appreciate the power of e-collaboration. With technological advancements that have been made, the technical boundaries that once limited e-collaboration are also being overcome. High bandwidth capabilities have enabled audio and video transmissions to be made in real-time therefore resulting in the creation of tools that do not only rely on text. Also, tools that allow for asynchronous work to be done on projects have been developed leading to an increase in interaction and higher levels of involvement for the participants.
While progress has been made in e-collaboration, the future promises even more change. At the present, most of the e-collaboration tools are designed for use on a PC or a laptop. With the development of phones that have greater processing and storage capabilities, e-collaboration may in the future include greater use of mobile devices. This will result in greater collaboration since mobile devices are not only more portable but they are significantly cheaper than desktop computers.
Another interesting notion for the future of e-collaboration is the use of avatars in the interaction in virtual environments. While the traditional e-collaborative tools which are text-based and sometimes multimedia based are sufficient in some situations, avatars will result in the giving of a “personality” to the person in virtual space. Once this idea is fine-tuned and fully implemented in e-collaboration, it is conceivable that people will be attending virtual meetings by use of their avatars. This will result in closer to “real life” interaction between the e-collaboration participants therefore generating higher productivity as a result of familiarity and confidence.
How will you do business differently knowing what you know now?
When doing business, my main objective would be to maximize my profits. This is mostly achieved by making sure that I am ahead of the competition. This perception is counter-productive since the scale of what I can achieve is limited since as an individual, my capacity is relatively small. My knowledge of e-collaboration dictates that to be able to achieve more, I have to be willing to collaborate with my competitors to come up with novel ideas by increasing the “resource pool”. The collaboration will result in a more and better idea which will be beneficial to both my competitors and my business. In addition to this, e-collaboration with my other business entities may result in a reduction in my cost of doing business which will mean that my business will make more profit in the long run.
One of the major advantages of e-collaboration is that it enables people to work together from differing physical locations. This is a significant realization since physical separation is a major hindrance to the collaborative development of ideas as the implementation of physical meetings is expensive. With my knowledge of the use of central repositories and other e-collaboration tools, physical separation will not be an issue since people from different branches of the business will be able to access centralized resources as well as discuss online from their independent locations. In addition to this, the issue of rapid product development will be solved through e-collaboration. Currently, most products have to be produced promptly to ensure their relevance to the consumer as well as maximize an organization’s profits. Collaboration assists this since by using e-collaboration, rapid research and development can be made possible as different departments of a company exploit the efficiency that e-collaboration tools offer.
My General Opinions on what I have learned from this class
In this class, I have acquired knowledge on not only how to create an e-collaboration environment but also on what can be regarded as best practices when using e-collaborative tools. It is invaluable information since while having a working knowledge of e-collaboration tools is good, having the ability to initiate an e-collaboration process is essential if one is to serve as a virtual team leader. A detailed analysis of the e-collaborative tools helped to highlight how e-collaboration has been evolving from the text-only era to becoming more interactive hence more user-friendly.
The lesson also emphasized the “people” aspect of e-collaboration. It is because, in practice, it is people who collaborate to achieve the desired outcome. In my opinion, the lesson on leadership roles and team participation in a virtual environment was particularly enlightening since if the people in the e-collaboration environment do not work together well, nothing valuable will get done. From the class, I also learned that one of the most important aspects of e-collaboration is placing resources (data, files e.t.c) in a central location that is accessible to all relevant parties. In addition to this, the lesson offered information on how e-collaboration tools can be made more engaging to ensure the active participation of all users.
References
(n.d.). 403 – Forbidden: Access is denied. Web.
Is collaboration the future of invention? – CNN.com. (n.d.). CNN – Breaking News, Latest News and Videos. Web.