Elearning - February/March 2009 - (Page 30)

Collaboration Trends and Strategies EXCERPTS FROM A NOVEMBER, 2008 ELEARNING! SUMMIT SEMINAR B Y D AV I D C O L E M A N People, process and technology: these are the elements of successful collaboration programs. That’s why you have to take a holistic approach to collaboration. It’s not enough to just look at the technology, which most people do. Like anything new, collaborative tools get about 80 percent of the attention, while people and process get about 20 percent — but in reality it should be the other way around. Collaboration tools are enablers for interactions between people via the computer and really nothing more than that. COLLABORATION 2.0 Collaboration 2.0 is looking at how collaborative tools have evolved and how this newer group of tools takes advantage of Web 2.0 technologies. Some of the features or characteristics mirror features and characteristics of Web 2.0, including: >> transparency (blogging, microblogging, wikis, location-based tools); >> participation (unconferences, blogging, online communities, social networks; >> trust in the group (let community police itself); >> allowing information and knowledge find you; >> understanding local context. So there are some big differences between Collaboration 1.0 and 2.0 (see chart). The first version was focused on 30 February/March 2009 Elearning! content. You could do searches, you could publish stuff on a Website. The newer version is almost entirely social and focuses on people. It’s more about profiles, reputations, interaction and group filtering. THE CRITICAL TRENDS Ten critical trends are driving Collaboration 2.0. Convergence of audio, video and data into unified conferencing or unified collaboration. These days, vendors are offering audio and data conferencing, screen sharing and remote access based on the same technologies. You can go from a Web conference and add a video conference with one click of a button. It’s integrated at the infrastructure level, so it’s transparent to the user. But total integration is not a reality yet, and it’s not that easy to do yet. Presence in social networks. “Presence” is the ability to know that someone’s there, attending a conference or instant-messaging or otherwise participating through their computer. A status indicator is really very useful, and 1 3 2 we’re seeing location being added as part of the function. The idea of presence also shows up in social networks. The downside to social networks is that you have to deal with them all the time if you want to do well with them. That takes a lot of time and effort, as do blogs and wikis and all 2.0 tools. On the other hand, they often have unexpected and wonderful outcomes. They make for a much richer environment. Merging of synchronous and asynchronous tools. Meeting environments of the future are actually going to change quite a bit. What kinds of things can you add to a meeting environment that will make it more useful? Some of the things are a script of what’s happened in the meeting and who said what, who is talking, comparative levels of dominance, noting people who are not in the meeting but at a distance, and additional information about the people participating. I believe that eventually in our meeting tools we will have the ability to receive more information from a distance meeting than you’d have if you were face to face. We’re starting to see some of this happen- HOW COLLABORATION EVOLVES Collaboration 1.0 >> focus on content >> people find content on Websites and portals >> high security on Web documents and content >> search (Google) is king >> seats and licenses >> F2F is best for meetings >> interact with colleagues Collaboration 2.0 >> focus on interacting or sharing content >> people pull content through tags >> blogging and transparency >> SaaS >> “Move bits not butts” >> Web/data conferencing >> customer as partner

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - February/March 2009

Elearning - February/March 2009 Contents Editor’s Note News Social Networking Popular Learning Needs Technology On Competency Management IT Employment Drops Trendlines Deals Learning Roles in Talent Management Informal E-Learning and Web 2.0 Cover Story: Learning Your Way to Profits Collaboration Trends, Strategies 12 Wishes for LMSs, LCMSs Tips: Recession-Proofing Your Job Case Study: Military Training Case Study: City of Arlington, Va. New Products Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning - February/March 2009

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