Collaboration tool

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A high resolution telepresence system in use
A student using an interactive whiteboard

A collaboration tool helps people to collaborate. The purpose of a collaboration tool is to support a group of two or more individuals to accomplish a common goal or objective.[1] Collaboration tools can be either of a non-technological nature such as paper, flipcharts, post-it notes or whiteboards.[2] They can also include software tools and applications such as collaborative software.

Early computer-based collaboration tools

The first idea to use computers in order to work with each other was formed in 1945 when Vannevar Bush shared his thoughts on a system he named "memex" in his article "As We May Think".[3] A system that stores books, records and communications of an individual and makes them available at any time. At this stage he called it "an enlarged supplement to his memory".[4]

Computerized office automation

In 1968 computer systems were brought in connection with communication and the potential way of working together when not at the same place by

U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In his article "The Computer as a Communication Device", he envisioned the idea that there should be a way of "facilitating communication among people without bringing them together in one place",[5] which eventually led to ARPANET, commercial time-sharing systems and finally the Internet
.

When the

groupware" as "computer-based systems that support groups of people engaged in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment".[6] Paul Wilson then shaped the term "computer-supported cooperative work" (CSCW). He described it as "a generic term which combines the understanding of the way people work in groups with the enabling technologies of computer networking, and associated hardware, software, services, and techniques".[7]

This laid the foundation to develop further on the ideas of

groupware and in the 1990s Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook were invented. In 2002 at the Social Software Summit Clay Shirky introduced the phrase “social software” as a "software that supports group interaction".[8]

Main types

Three aspects of collaboration: communication, coordination and cooperation can be used to categorize collaboration tools.[9]

Communication

Communication tools provide exchange of information between individuals:[10]

E-Mail

The invention of email as a collaboration tool changed the way we used to communicate in the workplace. It is the easiest method to make contact within an organization and is well established. Especially for organizing daily correspondence, email can reach various people with just one click.[11]

Although email is still the most common used tool in communication collaboration it is not very efficient on a big scale and other forms of communication seem to take over. Besides its flexibility it is not very good for group conversations as they grow too fast.[citation needed] There is no way to be sure that a person has the latest version of a document that has been sent to them and it is impossible to always track via their email what tasks need to be done and by which deadline.[12] As Cisco states in their Cisco Blog about the "Future of Email", emails "will improve productivity by organizing your data for you" [13] and try to bring more transparency in their work with email.

Voicemail

Voicemail as a collaboration tool is more and more integrated in services such as Google Voice. As pointed out in an IBM future scenario the role of voicemail could be that of what email is for us today.[14]

Instant messaging (IM)

Through instant messaging as a collaboration tool we are able to reach people within an organisation in real-time. In the future instant messaging is not a stand-alone software anymore, but very well integrated in bigger solutions such as Unified Communication.[15]

VoIP (voice over IP) / video call

Voice over IP as a collaboration tool has quickly gained popularity among companies and is part of their communication portfolio. As a report from Eclipse Telecom is pointing out, the VoIP is moving towards the state to totally replace our telephones in our offices and also integrate in existing collaboration service environments.[16]

Coordination

Coordination is defined as "the deliberate and orderly alignment or adjustment of partners’ actions to achieve jointly determined goals".[17] Collaboration tools supporting this are the ones who allow a person to set up group activities, schedules and deliverables.

Online calendars

Time-tracking software

Time trackers are especially used to measure the performance of employees. Its effect on productivity is discussed as being controversial.[19]

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are like emails very popular within the corporate environment and as a collaboration tool essential for financial analysis or modelling. Although very popular, several studies found out that many spreadsheets contain inaccurate data and are therefore inefficient.[20]

Cooperation

Cooperation tools allow groups to have real-time discussions and to shape an idea or thought together. Trends in terms of collaboration target on helping to maintain the "main idea" within big organizations and make connections visible. Also the idea of bringing people who are not working in a company on a regular basis into the organization and make use of their knowledge.[21]

Video conferencing

IM teleconferencing