The People Part of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Virtual Groups Better at Brainstorming … “… researchers found that virtual groups, where people brainstormed individually, generated nearly twice as many ideas as the real groups. The result, it turned out, is not an anomaly. In a [1987 study, researchers] concluded that brainstorming groups have never outperformed virtual groups. Of the 25 reported experiments by psychologists all over the world, real groups have never once been shown to be more productive than virtual groups. In fact, real groups that engage in brainstorming consistently generate about half the number of ideas they would have produced if the group’s individuals had [worked] alone.” Endless Knots
• Managers and Document Mayhem … More from TOWER Software on the document mayhem theme: “ … despite 88% of employees at middle manager or below needing to share computer files with co-workers, a staggering 62% of middle managers store them in places other than a shared computer network, and 59% of them store such files in multiple locations – compared to administration staff (29%).” ResponseSource

The Technology Trends of Enterprise Collaboration and Virtual Teams

• Collaborative Web Services … PC World looks at the capabilities of four collaborative web services: Central Desktop, Huddle, Basecamp, and WebOffice. “All four provide basic document management or sharing capabilities, user management and communications, and project management tools. A couple even offer features–such as app sharing and chat–that are well suited to geographically dispersed work groups.” PC World Canada
• SharePoint = “Virus” … CMS Watch concluded that the latest edition of SharePoint is being embraced without adequate planning, and this is opening significant risks. “As the number of MOSS instances grows, enterprises can in fact reach a point of negative returns where an inability to manage proliferating SharePoint silos becomes a hidden but serious enterprise management risk. Customers then require compliance tools are needed along with industrial strength archiving – costs that most enterprises have not budgeted for.” PharmaLive
• SightSpeed Business … SightSpeed introduced a Business edition of its video conferencing service, including unlimited video calling, video mail and storage of such, click-to-call links, and administration tools. Available immediately, in various pricing increments. SightSpeed

Insights on Being Productive and Effective as an Individual

• Tom’s #97 … “Relentlessly focus on pragmatic actions” Tom Peters
• Calendar Management Part 2 … Mike and Mark released part 2 of their podcast on calendar management, with ideas for (a) scheduling time for email, (b) nailing down your strategic objectives, and more. Manager Tools

Other Noteworthy Insights

• CA to Google? … Gov. Arnold has asked a working group to determine the feasibility of shifting to a hosted service for email and calendaring. Google and Microsoft are in the running. SysCon