Virtual collaboration

Sharing of information: Collaboration, by definition, is a process of assembling knowledge from different parties towards a common goal.

Virtual collaboration is meant to enable the sharing of knowledge between parties who cannot exchange information due to physical separation.

Examples of synchronous virtual collaboration include instant messaging, chat rooms, and video or audio conferencing (See figure 1).

Examples of asynchronous virtual collaboration include e-mail, discussion boards, application-specific groupware, or shared databases (See figure 1).

[4] Software used to connect distributed teams can be found for free on the internet, with more feature-loaded and specialized applications having a one-time cost or a paid subscription.

Moreover due to anonymity of the expert and invisibility of status effect there arises many issues like pressure to conform, lack of appreciation on the performance and can impact the group processes and outcome significantly.

But with virtual collaboration people tend to have more intragroup conflict than F2F this is due to the exchange of fewer social remarks and less participation.

Asynchronous communication does not give team members constant updates in real time, which can lead to coordination and sequencing problems for a task.

To overcome these challenges, virtual team should consider knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) aspects of the members.

The team member should clearly understand pros and cons of choosing synchronous and asynchronous medias to avoid issues resulted from dispersed workplaces.

With the technologies, the integration of fully distributed teamwork enables individuals at different workstations in the same site and those in various places to work together.

For instance, military applications augment navigational support, communications enhancement, repair, and maintenance through intrasite and intersite collaborative analyses, as well as allowing the regional expertise developed at each site to be applied wherever necessary across the boundary.

[19] Virtual collaboration is used for physician and nurses, or these hospital members and their patients, to be connected even when they are apart so that they can share valuable information.

Those virtual worlds can provide the basis for e-collaboration behavior and related outcomes as well as a platform for credible studies of trade the information and tasks.

[21] Virtual collaboration is widely used in corporate businesses for its efficiency, innovation, and ability to gain or keep competitive advantages in the market.

Both wikis and virtual conferencing have shown to be effective in sharing expert information to educate students or other individuals interested in the subject.

Virtual worlds also provide an arena to observe social science as it pertains to the collaborative efforts of a community.

[25] Wikis are a form of virtual collaboration because they enable people to contribute to an online document that can be seen and edited by other users via the internet.

International Business Machines (IBM) and Procter & Gamble were early commercial beneficiaries of the practice of open virtual collaboration.