Chapter 1: A Broader Definition of Collaboration

Overview

If you asked 10 people to define collaboration in a computing environment, you would receive a variety of answers. Some would say collaboration is e-mail. Others would mention video teleconferencing or the World Wide Web. You might even hear Internet chat as an answer. People struggle to define collaboration because so many technologies are related to the concept, and its definition today is broad. Really, all of these answers are correct. Collaboration ”at least in part ”is the integration of many technologies into a single application or environment to facilitate information sharing and information management.

Integrated technology, however, is only one aspect of collaboration as I'm defining it. Timing is another. We're all familiar with the kind of real-time collaboration in which teams gather and work together, taking turns communicating ideas. But new technology offers an entirely different form of collaboration ”asynchronous collaboration ”in which you don't have to be present to participate. Asynchronous collaboration allows you, at your convenience, to collaborate with other people at their convenience. E-mail, public databases, the Internet, and intranets are all forms of asynchronous communication.

Collaborative technology provides these key benefits to businesses and organizations:

• Extensive , secure communication     Collaborative technologies enable extensive communication through many mediums and secure communication through encryption and digital signature technology ”critical features for business transactions conducted over the Internet.

• Storing information in a central location     Information is placed in a central repository, or database, so individuals inside and outside a corporation can access it.

• Showing information in a threaded view     Information can be shown in a threaded view so its history is accessible and new information can be added to it.

• Ability to extend technologies with new functionality and bridge islands of information     Collaborative systems connect disparate systems and facilitate finding and sharing information stored in formats used by existing technologies. Essentially, they bridge islands of information.

How does a collaborative system provide these benefits to organizations? In terms of its architecture, a collaborative system must have several characteristics. First, it must have a robust, easily replicated object database that can store many types of information, such as Web pages, Microsoft Office documents, and e-mail messages. The system must support replication from server to server and from server to client. Replication allows information to be accessed by individuals who are dispersed geographically . For users to work with the data, the database must allow connections from many different clients , from Web browsers to industry-specific applications.

Second, a collaborative system must support the Internet and industry standards. The days of stovepipe computing are over. Technologies now connect disparate networks to form one global, cohesive network. A collaborative system must be able to interoperate with networks over the Internet, and it must follow industry standards that open it to a large number of external systems as well as guarantee the integrity of the data.

Third, a collaborative system must offer development tools and technologies and be easily programmable. The environment must be open so developers can use any tool to develop solutions and users can access and customize the user interface.