Gender and Diversity in Collaborative Virtual Teams

Computer supported collaborative learning environments (CSCLEs) is one of the innovative technologies that support online education. Successful design and implementation of such environments demand thorough analysis of many parameters. This chapter studies the impact of diversity in learner-learner interactions in collaborative virtual teams through a social and cultural perspective. Social differences include gender, race, class, or age. Cultural differences refer to matters like how an individual’s cognition, values, beliefs, and study behaviors are influenced by culture. Instructors must take into consideration the factors that influence individuals’ diversity, and invent new ways to implement successful collaboration. This is crucial, especially regarding teams scattered on different countries or even continents. Social and cultural differences influence an individual’s performance in a learning environment. Such differences must be adequately studied by both the educational organization and the instructors in such a way that the learning procedure will become a positive experience for all the members involved.

Enabling On-Line Deliberation and Collective Decision-Making through Large-Scale Argumentation

The successful emergence of on-line communities, such as open source software and Wikipedia, seems due to an effective combination of intelligent collective behavior and internet capabilities However, current internet technologies, such as forum, wikis and blogs appear to be less supportive for knowledge organization and consensus formation. In particular very few attempts have been done to support large, diverse, and geographically dispersed groups to systematically explore and come to decisions concerning complex and controversial systemic challenges. In order to overcome the limitations of current collaborative technologies, in this article, we present a new large-scale collaborative platform based on argumentation mapping. To date argumentation mapping has been effectively used for small-scale, co-located groups. The main research questions this work faces are: can argumentation scale? Will large-scale argumentation outperform current collaborative technologies in collective problem solving and deliberation? We present some preliminary results obtained from a first field test of an argumentation platform with a moderate-sized (few hundred) users community.

How do Collaborative Technologies Affect Innovation in SMEs?

This study seeks to assess the impact of collaborative technologies on innovation at the firm level. Collaborative technologies’ influence on innovation is considered here as a multistage process that starts at adoption and extends to use. Thus, the effect of collaborative technologies on innovation is examined not only directly, the simple presence of collaborative technologies, but also based on actual collaborative technologies’ use. Given the fact that firms can use this technology for different purposes, collaborative technologies’ use is measured according to three orientations: e-information, e-communication, and e-workflow. To achieve these objectives, a research model is developed for assessing, on the one hand, the impact of the adoption and use of collaborative technologies on innovation and, on the other hand, the relationship between adoption and use of collaborative technologies. The research model is tested using a dataset of 310 Spanish SMEs.

Collaborative Design

Within the context of a three year applied research project conducted from 2003-2006 in a North American university library, staff were encouraged to reconsider organizational assumptions and design processes. The project involved an organizational leader and an external consultant who introduced and collaboratively applied Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) practice. Project results suggest the efficacy of using ‘soft’ systems thinking to guide interaction (re)design of technology-enabled environments, systems, and tools. In addition, participants attained insights into their new roles and responsibilities within a dynamically changing higher education environment. Project participants also applied SSM to redesign ‘in house’ information systems. The process of employing systems thinking practices to activate and advance organizational (re)learning, and initiating and elaborating user-centered interaction (re) design practices, culminated in a collaborative design (co-design) approach that readied participants for nimble responsiveness to continuous changes in the dynamic external environment.

Collaboration in Open Source Domains

Free and open source software (F/OSS) developers have a tendency to build feature-centric projects rather than following a user-centered design, ignoring the necessity of usability in the resulting product.While there are many reasons behind this, the main cause can be stated as the lack of awareness of usability from developers’ point of view and little interaction of project stakeholders with Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) studies. This chapter examines different types of collaboration methods of usability experts and developers focusing particularly on open source projects, together with potential issues envisaged during the communication phases. The chapter also focuses on the collaboration trends and patterns of HCI experts, developers and users with an emphasis on concerns related to inefficient exploitation of current tools and technologies and provides an open usability engineering method which could be exploited in distributed projects.

Lights, Camera, Action! Via Teacher Librarian Video Conferencing

How can professional organizations build an online community of practice that enables teacher librarians globally to connect meaningfully and make a difference locally—and beyond? Video conferencing is one solution. Using video conferencing, teacher librarians have a unique opportunity to help build a strong collaborative, professional network that will positively impact best practices while at the same time raise awareness of twenty-first century librarianship. Critical elements and practices are identified that facilitate communities of practice and support teacher librarian professional development. Aspects of video conferencing are detailed, and a case study on the use of video conferencing explains how to facilitate a nation-wide community of practice among teacher librarians.

Collaboration in Risk Markets

Collaboration can be an effective tool for managing risk. A structured environment for sharing critical risk information can improve decision-making. The business environment currently in place makes it difficult to collaborate, due to complex and overlapping regulatory schemes. In addition, the computing framework used in risk-based sectors is not integrated, resulting in a patchwork of ad-hoc systems that make it difficult to collaborate in an efficient or transparent way. This chapter will present an example of a business framework in which organizations collaborate by trading risk-based products. This arrangement mitigates risk by allocating it to those organizations that can best handle it. A computing framework utilizing Web Services is presented that can help facilitate these types of transactions. Several challenges recur in knowledge management of risk, including trust, information filtering, connecting information (‘connecting the dots’), and fluid information exchange. Examples from the insurance and financial industries are presented. Knowledge management of risk information can be facilitated by the development of an Ontology used to describe Web Semantics. A user interface for knowledge management that incorporates collaborative mapping, filtering, and community discussion is presented. Collaboration is being used more frequently to handle core business processes (deep collaboration) as opposed to generic communications such as Wikis (shallow collaboration). A structured environment for collaboration is risk environments can improve security, transparency, and effectiveness. This type of environment might have been used to mitigate the impact risk-based problems such as the current financial emergency. In conclusion, it is posited that a new type of product can emerge which incorporates the social-computing value of risk.

Collaborative Retrieval Systems

Collaborative search generally uses previously collected search sessions as a resource to help future users to improve their searching by query modification. The recommendation or automatic extension of the query is generally based on the content of the old sessions, or purely the sequence/order of queries/ texts in a session, or a combination. However, users with the same expressed query may need different information. The difference may not be topic related. This chapter proposes to enrich the context of query representation to incorporate non-topical properties of user information needs, which the authors believe will improve the results of collaborative search.

Maximizing Collaboration Using Topic Maps-Based Ontology

Enhanced information organization is more critical than ever in the digital world where ill-structured information is increasing because of the rapid growth of intranets, the Internet, and user-created content. This chapter discusses limitations of current information organization approaches in the digital age and incorporating ontology into information organizations, thus enhancing collaboration possibilities. This chapter compares the two ontology languages, RDF and Topic Maps, addresses the selection guidelines between the two ontology languages, and then presents user performance using a Topic Maps-based ontology.

Preparing the Next Generation of Innovators through Collaboration

Every country is challenged to stay competitive in the new global economy. The education system within a country must play a pivotal role in ensuring the next generation is prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century workplace. Companies have realized that collaboration is a key competency that will bring success in the global economy. It is necessary that teachers understand the needs of our changing economy and incorporate methods to facilitate collaboration, communication, creativity, leadership, responsibility, self-direction, and people skills. This challenge is a global issue and this chapter discusses the steps the US is taking to ensure that its citizenry remains innovative, how the business community is using collaboration to be competitive, the issues encountered in schools to meet challenges of the 21st Century, and positive evidence that the landscape of education is changing in response to the desperate need to produce the next generation of innovators.