The Moment of Truth

It's Presentation Night

The waiting is over and we are finally presenting our research findings. By the time you read this, are presentation will be over.

If you saw the presentation, drop us a comment to let us know your thoughts.

A Thought on Cultural Differences

The Digital Divide

Although not explicitly noted in our paper there is an interesting cultural/governmental difference in response to bridging the digital divide.

In Mexico, the government is creating communal Internet sites in schools, libraries, post offices, and other goverment buildings. The United States lacks a similar direct government involvement.

I can only think of one program where the US federal government is directly involved - the Schools and Libraries' Eligibility Services program (aka e-Rate). It is an underfunded and poorly adminstered program that does not have as much impact as it could.

The Paper Chase

The Paper is Almost Done
At times it felt like it would never happen, but final the paper is done (or at least I believe so).

Most new born babies weigh less than this paper!

Fortunately, the baby analogy ends there because it took less time to make the paper than a baby (6 weeks versus 9 months), it wasn't as painful (or so I imagine), and we don't have to change it anymore.

To view the paper, click on the Wiki link.

Venting!

I must say, I am running out of gas on this project. The current version of the paper weighs in at more than 50 pages (including References, etc.) and yet it is still not complete. We still need content pulling together Blogs, Wikis, and Skype - I'm looking for contributions that examine those elements as a form of ad hoc online collaboration tool.

Wiki as Collaboration Technology

Ramit Sethi's (of PBWiki) recent visit to our Wiki leads me to think a bit more about the potential for Wikis as a collaboration technology.

Essentially one can view a Wiki as a universally available collaboration tool to enable the ad hoc creation of collaborative environments outside of structured academic or corporate settings.

Positive News About Our Wiki

Below is a copy of an email exchange between myself and one of the VPs from PBWiki.

From: "Ramit Sethi"
To: "'Sigmund Dellhime'"
Subject: RE: How do you like PBWiki so far?
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 11:20:12 -0700

In-Reply-To:
Hi Sigmund,
I took a look at your Wiki and was very impressed! It's great to see research being done on these collaborative technologies. I plan to keep checking in and seeing new developments.
Now I have a question to ask you: Would you be willing to help evangelize PBWiki for us by encouraging people to use it? We're hoping you can help us get 30 new PBWiki users.
What do you think?
-Ramit

-----Original Message-----
From: Sigmund Dellhime [mailto:sig.dellhime@gmail.com]=20
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2005 6:47 PM
To: Ramit Sethi
Subject: Re: How do you like PBWiki so far?

Dear Ramit,

PBWiki is excellent!
You might be interested in knowing how and why this wiki http://collaborationwiki.pbwiki.com) was created. I am a student at the University of Redlands in their Master of Science in information Technology program. Currently I'm in a class on Emerging Technologies. As part of the course our class is broken into 3 groups of 5 students and we are matched with students at the Instituto Tecnolgico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM) in Mexico City. As our joint research project, we are conducting case study reviews on various online collaboration technologies. One of which is the wiki.

We are using the collaborationwiki to gather our research findings and to assemble our final report. Please feel free to drop in on our wiki and help us develop a definition of online collaboration.

On 7/21/05, Ramit Sethi wrote:
Hi there,

My name is Ramit Sethi and I'm one of the VPs here at PBWiki. I'm writing to ask how I can improve your experience with PBWiki. Do you like it? How are you using it? What are the features you most want to see added?

We're especially interested in hearing about what you'd want to see next. Feel free to write directly to me--I think you'll see we're pretty small and responsive! So please let me know what you think (and if you have any questions, just let me know).

Thanks,

Ramit

---
Ramit Sethi
ramit@coceve.com
Coceve runs http://www.PBWiki.com and http://www.IMSmarter.com, with
more innovative tools coming soon.

The Wiki is Coming Together

It's Working

It's good to see group members are starting to post information on the Wiki. Hopefully it will make my life a bit easier when it comes to editing the information into a final version.

Another Communications Breakdown?

Thursday night we had a minor communications glitch. Our counterparts were not available to participate in an audio conference. We had an agenda of items and deadlines to cover, but we'll just settle for good old fashioned email for passing along the information.

Some Mistakes Can Teach Lessons

Yesterday morning the Redlands group help a Skype session with Javier. Javier was able to join us; the sound quality of his new microphone as excellent. We talked for about 1 hour; part of the time was spent exploring the definition of "collaboration". Ultimately the group felt that defining "collaboration" through case study comparisons would be a unifying focus of our research efforts.

Finally, part of the process of using various collaboration tools in preparing our research to to discover their advantages and disadvantages. Yesterday we inadvertently discovered a language impediment - Noel and Roma contacted me last night at 8 p.m. instead of 8 in the morning. No hay un problema.

We now all know that we must be specific in stating whether we are meeting in the morning or the afternoon/evening. Using Latin abbreviations (a.m./p.m.) may cause confusion.

International Group Collaboration

More on Collaboration

In fact, the distinction lies in the degree of interrelation between communication, coordination, and group cohesion.

We do not profess particular knowlege into the nature of communication or interpersonal group dynamics. Rather we rely upon assumptions based upon an intuitive understanding of the following.

Communication is essentially the process of conveying information between participants. Communication can lead to knowledge (the internalization of information) or understanding (leading to an impetus for action or reaction).

Coordination involves multiple parties deliberately performing separate actions that either facilitate their intergration or preclude mutual interference.

International Group Collaboration

Thoughts on Last Tuesday's Meeting

I'd like to hear everyone's comments on how well our Skype session we held on Tuesday went. Personally, I am still impressed on how helpful it is to be able to talk with everyone.

Posting threads on Blackboard is a good way to communicate when group members are separated by space and time. I see its main drawback being the latency between posting a comment and receiving a response. Its significant advantages are it privacy and the ability for users to post detailed complete information.

International Group Collaboration

International Group Collaboration

I've made a change to the way posted comments (comments posted in response to an existing thread) appear. Instead of appearing in the open browser window, it now appears in a pop-up box.

Let me know if you have trouble viewing a pop-up window. If you are using a pop-up blocker, it may also block your ability to view and/or add a comment.

International Group Collaboration

We Have A Wiki
We've created a "Wiki" for the Group to use. Go to: http://collaborationwiki.pbwiki.com/
(You can also click on the "Group 5 Collaboration Wiki" link shown in the frame of this Blog)

Use it to post your research results, but don't forget to return to this Blog to record your observations on the process.

Helpful Hints on Using this Blog

I've heard from a few of you that you tried to post a message to this board, but nothing seems to happen. Please be sure to click on the "Blog This!" button located in the Blogger menu bar, then type your message. When finished, click on the "publish" button. To confirm you posting was published, click your browser's refresh button.

Let me know if are still having problems.

P.S. I posted this message using the method described above.

P.P.S. If you click on the "comment" button found at the end of a posting (look for the pencil/lapiz icon), you can add your comments, but they will not directly show in the Blog. To view the comments of others, click on the "comment" button - a new window will open - on the left will be the comments made by others, on the right is the area where you can add your own comments.

The Redlands component of Group 5 got off to a very productive start this morning. Good food and alcohol may be the keys to success!

The group was able to work out a conceptual framework for analyzing the subject area of Collaboration Technology and develop a draft Abstract. Just as Joe Cremer was starting to type the Abstract we received a Skype call from Javier.

Unfortunately for Javier, his PC is not currently equipped with a microphone so we switched over to using Skype's chat feature. Shortly after starting our chat with Javier, Roma attempted to call on Skype. We lost her call, but quickly reconnected and ironed out a few technical glitches.

One glitch involved my new Labtec microphone. Apparently our voices sounded garbled to Roma. Solution, switch back to my laptop's built-in microphone.

Speaker and microphone placement is also an issue. If you are using headphones with an attacted microphone you shouldn't have a problem with an "echo". If you are using external speaker and an omnidirectional microphone, the microphone can pickup sounds/voices coming from the speakers. In this scenario, the person talking on the other end hears himself/herself speaking in delay (latency).

Other than that problem, sound quality was generally good and of course it was free.

Some Help in Posting

If you wish to post to this Blog you must either be a Blog Team Member or have a Blogger Username. If your are a member of UOR/ITAM Collaboration Group 5, then you may have already received an invitation to join this Blog.

When you reply to the request to join the Blog you may be asked to create a Blogger Username and Password - it's FREE. Please do so.

About this Blog

This Blog exists as a journal for use by members of the University of Redlands and ITAM Group 5 to share their thoughts and experiences as they research the use of collaboration technology. We may incorporate this Blog (or edited portions of it) as an Appendix to the final report.

In this bloc we are primarily interested in sharing our honest thoughts and impressions about the collaboration process we are jointly experiencing. This is not a forum to exchange research findings or to arrange other group activities.

collaboration technology exists in many forms and we would be remiss if we did not attempt to use a number of the technologies as part of our process. To this end we will this Blog as a group journal, Skype for real-time member-to-member communication (via VoIP and chat), Blackboard for formal and moderated exchanges, and (perhaps) a WIKI for compiling our final report.