Farewell blog

I have thoroughly enjoyed the reflective blogging assignment. I tried, a much as possible, to blog only when I had truly reflected on something on the course and when I was truly interested in something. In this respect, it was relatively easy to do. The benefits of blogs, as I see them are:

·         They structure one’s thoughts.

·         You can easily identify areas which interest you the most.

·         You learn a lot from others posts.

·         You realise how limited your own knowledge is and how much more there is to learn.

·         They encourage you to open up and to trust others.

·         They encourage sharing and collaboration of ideas.

·         You can learn how to do something better.

·         You can feel proud of some of your achievements. Too often, it’s easy to move on to new projects without having rewarded yourself for a learning experience.

·         You can express yourself.

·         They encourage real-life discussion because you can discuss each other’s interests.

·         They encourage you to ask questions.

·         You can understand people better.

I would definitely consider writing blogs in the future. Thanks to everyone who read (and commented) on my blog, and for the useful information that you provided in your blogs.

Highlights of the Ennis Hub Plan assignment

We finished the Ennis Hub Plan assignment today. I have various thoughts roaming around in my head but the main positive thoughts of the assignment which strike out at me are:

• I had the opportunity to work as part of a team. I enjoyed having had this opportunity, and also working alongside Jeanne (who wrote the content with me).
• I accepted editorial changes. My content was edited by the team. Surprisingly, this was more thorough and scrupulous than edits I have received from a Manager or teacher. If my ego can survive this, it can perhaps survive other criticisms. That can only be a good thing.
• We used a simple, yet effective technique to order the pages of the navigation. We physically cut out each page on a piece of paper and arranged and rearranged each of them on a table to establish some sort of order for the navigation. A technique introduced by Maureen. This was fun and saved us a lot of time writing it and rewriting it on paper.
• I learned detailed conceptual thinking. Some members of the team think in more detail. This encourages one to do the same.

We had some suggestions on what we would do better in further team projects, but I will perhaps leave these for another blog. Thanks to all those on my team for all their hard work.

Time management

Having read other classmates postings, I am left wondering how many classmates are completing assignments ahead of time, especially as the Ennis Hub Plan assignment is still going. Either they are magical or their time management skills are excellent. I imagine it’s the latter.

I have a timetable of assignments posted up in my room so I am well aware of what needs done and when it is due. However, I tend to dedicate an awful lot of time to one assignment. The team projects seem to take up the most time and I find myself dedicating all my time to them, and nothing else. Also, I find it difficult to concentrate on other assignments if one is still pending.

So how is everyone else doing it?

I realise I have to set myself timescales, goals and deadlines, and stick to them rigidly, even if team projects demand otherwise. Also, I’m guessing, it is not possible to devote ‘deep learning’ to all projects. Sometimes, you just need to get it done, especially as we are working within very limited timeframes.

Examples of some books and magazine articles on the subject are: "Time Is Money, So Use It Productively" (Taylor & Mackenzie, 1986), "Put Time on Your Side" (Emanuel, 1982), and "How To Get Control of Your Time and Your Life" (Lakein, 1973).

Dreamweaver and home pages

For the website assignment for Majella’s module, I was generally pleased with how my website turned out. However, there are two major issues I will need to address in future projects and assignments.

Firstly, I need to learn Dreamweaver properly and thoroughly. My knowledge of Dreamweaver includes only what we have learned in the labs, bits and pieces picked up from online tutorials, and help and advice given to me by Brian Carrigan. I still need to learn how to use it properly and extensively if I am to complete the summer development project. For this, I hope to complete the tutorials kindly given to me by Melanie Corr in a CD called ‘The Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 Classroom in a Book’. I also intend on looking at further online tutorials, which some of you have recommended on your own sites. I am concerned about my limited knowledge but I suppose it is just something you need to ‘play around with’. When I wonder if I will ever need to use Dreamweaver again, I am reminded that we are on this course to develop the ability to learn new tools, and not necessarily the new tools themselves.

The second issue concerns my homepage. I realise now (having written the homepage for the team website) that I treat the homepage like the introduction of a help manual. I have been including all of the top level information and all of the links to other pages, on the homepage. However, I have been told by my team that the navigation bar is supposed to suffice for the links to other pages, and that images are supposed to portray some of the information. I must admit, I had to relinquish my usual way of organising information, which can only be a step forward on the learning curve. 

To comment on my blog

Some classmates told me they had problems posting comments on my blog. I think it helps if you preview the message before you post it. Let me know if this helps.

Online communication

In light of the recent discussions, it occurs to me how much more careful I need to be in my online communication with other people. More often than not, my online presence is informal – I usually use the Internet to talk with my friends or with a close work colleague (who know my casual style of writing). In fact, I have enjoyed rather a liberal and impulsive way of writing on the Internet for quite some time. I always considered it as a way of relaxing from the formal writing I did at work. However, in online discussions, that style of writing does not necessarily translate well. Carefully thought-out and well-written sentences must be upheld throughout the discussion to reduce the chances of causing offence.

In fairness to myself, my initial posts were well thought and carefully planned. It was only after a few posts that I began to relax a little into the discussion and started to write more liberally, perhaps to the detriment of my message.

Senge (1994:245) suggests three ways to improve personal communication:

·         reflection: becoming more aware of one's own thinking and reasoning;

·         advocacy: making one's thinking and reasoning more visible to others; and

·         inquiry: inquiring into others' thinking and reasoning.

I am capable of all these skills, especially of reflection and inquiry. I perhaps then have to improve my skills of advocacy, i.e. by making my thinking and reasoning more visible to others. I would also add another aspect to Senge's list (or perhaps it is a part of advocacy): Cushioning (for want of a better word). I can be rather direct. So just like small talk aids the flow of a conversation in real-life, softening the email for the reader can also aid online discussions. For this, I wonder, can one change their personality? ;-)

This also reminds me of a recent discussion I had with a classmate. We talked about the early days of communicating online and how we would have occasionally ignored normal etiquette, mainly because we saw the technology as cold and did not think of the person on the other side as a real person necessarily. It was only after time and after making occasional mistakes that we started to realise that the person on the other side is a real person with feelings and that we should respect him/her. We can learn the rules but sometimes we also learn the hard way.

For more information on netiquette (online etiquette) and articles used in this blog see:

Good Online Conversation - Building on Research To Inform Practice. Sherry et al. Available as a PDF if you search Google Scholar.

http://www.cit.gu.edu.au/~davidt/email_etiquette.htm

http://www.thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=23225

http://isp-lists.isp-planet.com/email-list-netiquette/.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt

http://onlinestudylist.com/etiquette.html.

Self interest v Common interest

In a recent late night work session in the lab, me and a couple of classmates talked about the heightened levels of interactivity in this semester, compared with the last. We each expressed our interest in the discussion forums and team projects, and wondered why there weren’t more of these types of projects in the first semester. One suggestion was that we were not perhaps ready for teamwork at that stage.

In the EL6052 lecture this week, the Five-Stage Model of Teaching and Learning Online was taught which addressed the motivations for participants to work together. It stated that in the beginning, individuals are motivated by ‘self-interest’ and they require extrinsic factors to motivate them. After these factors have been fulfilled, they then seek the ‘common interest’ and they require respect and trust. This is an interesting theory because it is perhaps true that our class were only really in a position to interact with the class, after we had received our results (extrinsic factors) over the Christmas holidays. It is one theory however. Another is, of course, that interactive elements could be introduced on the course sooner.

I am the bullet point queen

One question that both my teams have had in common so far is ‘do we use bullet points or paragraphs in our reports?’.

I am perhaps not the best person to ask – I will opt for bullet points every time. Whenever there is a list of points to be made, I immediately think bullets. But is this lazy (because one is not forming full sentences)? If it is, I don’t mean to be lazy. My justification for using them is to aid with scannability – if there is a point per bullet, the reader can easily see the point. And when I hear ‘report’, I think in terms of highlighting important information (especially if a manager is reading it).

So when is it inappropriate to use bullet points in a report? Are they solely for short lists?

IT and Management

These blogs are designed to reflect our experiences of using technologies during the MA course. Already I have identified a reoccurring theme in mine, which mirrors my interests and background – it is my curiousness into group dynamics when using technologies (see Technology Use and Communication Strategies of Irish and US Students in Virtual Teams  for an example article). This week, we are back to using good old email to communicate with our new teams on the website design project. We have already met face-to-face several times, so really, the emails are reinforcing what we’ve agreed on in the meetings. But there is one element which is different in this project, which we did not have in our last. We have assigned a Project Manager.

In this semester, this course has felt very ‘hands on’. It reflects, to some extent, team projects in the real world. We will have to engage with others using technologies and we will be using technologies in our own work. However, we will also be working with people, and being aware of people issues in a team and learning how to overcome these issues will be extremely useful skills to know as well. Certainly having a Project Manager is a good start.

Writing and editing the same document in a virtual team

The virtual team project may be over, but I am left pondering some of the intricacies of the project. The two main ones that interest me the most are the team dynamics and the editing of one document. There is much literature written on team dynamics, some of which has been posted by Darina. However, for this post, I’d like to discuss the editing of one document.

For our team assignment, each member of our team submitted sections of his/her report to the Resources area of Sulis. Then I, as Editor collated the information into one Word document. Each time a new draft was created, I gave the document a new version number – 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and so on, and then submitted it to the Resources area. This is the traditional way that I have worked on documents. However, I am interested in exploring a better method.

The teams in the class used a variety of editing tools such as wikis, Google docs, and Adobe Communicate to work on the same document. Our team decided to use wikis. My initial reaction to the wiki was one of dislike. It looked like each member had to use the wiki to format and write sections of the document, perhaps synchronously, while signed into Sulis (an application that signs one out after a while perhaps without saving work). Although curious, I left it in the hands of one team member who volunteered to study it. But unfortunately, she was absent from the project so we never really got to explore its use, beyond using it to submit Word documents to the Resources area.

It was clear from the presentation on Wednesday that no team liked to use the wiki for collaboration. So, I’m unsure about exploring it further. I researched some articles and have discovered some interesting alternatives. The following is taken from The user-centered iterative design of collaborative writing software:

·        Aspect – is a collaborative conferencing system that runs on networked computers and provides writing, drawing, and painting tools.

·        GROVE – is an outlining tool designed for users at remote sites working on networked computers.

·        PREP – is a writing tool that provides asynchronous access to documents and can be thought of as a “spreadsheet for documents,” because it provides a column based interface where text is presented in columns of visually linked chunks.

·        Quilt – is a multi-user hypermedia communications and coordination tool which combines computer conferencing with multi-media email.

·        ShrEdit – is intended for simultaneous writing by several users working on networked computers in a conference room.     

If anyone in the class has used any of these tools, please let me know what you think of them.

In the past week, my business partner has purchased Network Attached Storage (NAS) and informs me that one can use this to work on the same document. Some interesting articles on NAS include:

Network attached storage architecture

Storage systems for national information assets

With NAS, one can access another's entire filing system over the Internet, by signing in with a username and password. They can also work on the same document at the same time. Although, it is perhaps not a cost-effective tool to use for small groups (according to the literature).

The concept of working on the same document synchronously interests me (I have only ever been required to work on a document independently). If, in the future, one has to work with a team of technical writers, this is certainly a skill that is desired, and therefore worth knowing.

If anyone has any other experience in this area, please let me know. Thanks.

A little issue

Our team had quite a sensitive issue to deal with. One member of the team was significantly absent throughout the project – a girl on the American side. She failed to submit a draft of her work to the team, she didn’t post or reply to any messages in the discussion forum, and she stopped attending the meetings. We tried, earnestly, to get her involved, but to no avail. We heard, fleetingly at one stage, that she may have been attending a funeral in another state, but we were not sure. We waited for her to contribute her work but when we didn’t hear anything by Sunday, we had to take final action.  

Can we blame the limitations of collaborative technologies on this issue or would this have happened if we were all on the same side of the Atlantic?

I’m inclined to blame it almost entirely on the technologies because we felt powerless to engage her on the project because of their limitations. It sometimes felt like she did not feel accountable to us because she could neither see nor hear us directly. Of course, she may have been attending a funeral in another state (this is entirely possible) but why wasn’t the work submitted then by the weekend or why was she not excused? If we were in the same classroom, it would have been so easy to just go up and say ‘hey, where’s your work girl?’, but of course, we could not do this. Is this an issue we could be facing in the world of work?

In my experience, I have never had this issue in a virtual team in the workplace (and I’ve worked in many virtual teams). So perhaps I am wrong to blame it all on the technologies. In the workplace, you have a well-defined structure of responsibility. If someone is not pulling their weight, management is down upon him or her like a ton of bricks. So, is this soley an issue with a student (and not the technologies), period? It's difficult to tell - the technologies did not help matters but I suspect it was a student issue.

I think, to be fair, it is important to separate the findings of our projects from the workplace. We are studying the use of communicative and collaborative technologies in an educational virtual team. There definitely seems to be a difference (in my opinion anyway).

The following is an interesting related article - 'Managing a Virtual Workplace' by Wayne F. Cascio.

Was it wise to take the Editor role?

I’m exhausted. My entire weekend was spent editing the report for our virtual team assignment. I’m asking myself now – was it wise to take the editing role?

Yes, of course it was. On a Technical Writing course, to practice the skills of document editing is invaluable (even for me – a Technical Writer whose skills are rusty).

If you were the Editor, think of the skills you were using: collating information, checking for inconsistencies (of which there were many!), checking grammar and spelling, localisation (and not ‘localization’ ;-) ) rewriting text, formatting the document, and so on. If you are able to do these skills well (and you enjoyed it), then you will quite likely enjoy Technical Writing. Editing is a huge part of the job.

Whether or not our report reads well, academically, I can only hope so. I believe academic writing is a separate skill and there is only so much editing you can do to make it sound like one voice (especially in a limited timeframe). It's just hard to believe it is only worth 30%, for all the effort it required.

Are blogs any good for teamwork?

The majority of our virtual team would probably say no. Members were practically forced to use it at times. Our blogging specialist was frustrated at continuously writing up minutes of meetings and posting them in the blog, and then finding that no one really had anything to say. She tried, laboriously, to encourage the team to use it as an interactive tool by posting issues and discussions on the blog, but to no avail.

It was never going to be any good for issues and discussions. The purpose of a blog is to reflect on learning (from what I can see). Issues and discussions are for the discussion forums and the meetings, blogs are for reflecting.

Personally, I found the blogs useful. I read all of the posts, and commented on most of them. If I identified an issue, I took it to the discussion forum. It definitely made me think! I also found it interesting to see how others interpreted the meetings. It helped me gage their attitudes to them, which is yet another socio-emotional clue in a covert and virtual team environment.

So, in my opinion, yes they are good for teamwork. However, the issue lies in finding ways to encourage everyone to use it.

What is this blogging and discussing all about?

In the past week, I know more about the students in my MA class than I did previously. Suddenly, they have a voice, and a very loud one. That is not to say they did not before (absolutely not), but that their voice has suddenly become louder in the past week. And the two main tools that have facilitated this are blogging and discussion threads.

It makes me ask the question: what is this blogging and discussing all about?

I looked up a couple of articles on blogging, which helped me understand it a little bit better (refer to the links at the end for sources):

‘It is about taking control of your own learning, finding your own voice, and expressing your own opinions. It is about responding to the world around you and listening to the responses you receive in return.’

Without a doubt, I have heard the (fervent) opinions of many people in my class. It has been interesting. Equally, I have been able to state my own opinions, and that has been exciting.

‘This public aspect of blogs also exposes the author's own thoughts to challenges by others as part of the constructivist learning context.

‘It is claimed that in a blogging setting, the sense of community is stronger than that experienced by students in the conventional classroom.’

Words like constructivist and community definitely start to ring some bells. But I must admit, I never really thought that such an informal tool like blogging could really be used in third level education. I am amazed. And yet, it is proving quite effective. Even though I reflected on tools before, I am more inclined to do so now that I feel that someone may be listening (or reading rather). But why do it online?

‘The theory is that learners feel less inhibited about disclosing their true feelings and anxieties regarding their level of understanding because they are not under scrutiny. Avoiding assessment is also suggested to further liberate the learner to take advantage of the private space afforded by the journal.’

We actually are under assessment but sometimes one can forget that they are because the nature of the technology is so similar to social networking sites and forums which many of us are already accustomed to.

No tool is without it’s criticisms. For instance:

‘It should be acknowledged, however, that this can be at the cost of sacrificing of individual freedom to take a stand, disagree with another person's perspective, or explore a controversial topic while secure in the knowledge that what is written will only be seen by the instructor or remain completely confidential. Similarly, compulsion to participate in a public forum may not suit introverts or those for whom the issues to be discussed are novel. This may adversely affect the quality and depth of students' discussions in an online environment.’

One has only to read the discussion that is going on regarding fees for one of our modules to appreciate how uninhibited our class is to online discussion. Perhaps it is because we are studying technical communications that make us more open to it? Or perhaps there are students in the class that are not at all comfortable with it? I’m sure there are.

Anyway, these are just some of my current thoughts on blogs.

In my next blog, I think I would like to reflect upon the best way to write a blog. It definitely seems to be an art. I would like to consider ways in which to promote or gain the interest of readers. Blogging is, quite possibly, a tool we will have to utilise in the future.

References:
Weblog: Learning in public.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1509888

Social software as support in hybrid learning environments: The value of the blog as a tool for reflective learning and peer support.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5R-4P190F0-3&_user=103702&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2007&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1650207822&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000007923&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=103702&md5=558c59e98858f2c51ee4966d00cea6f5&searchtype=a#bib27#bib27

Something has to be said about the Help

If we are assessing the effectiveness of technologies in a virtual team environment, then we are (quite obviously) assessing them against ‘real-life’ methods or traditional technologies that everyone is familiar with.

It occurs to me that most of our technologies are up against a whole plethora of existing standards and support that exist for their rivals, for instance, the Help and support. Have you ever tried to use a new technology and come to a halt, pretty much upon installation, and then tried to contact the Help only to come up with a whole new set of problems, like 'why won't they answer the phone' or 'why are they making this more difficult than it seems!'? I’m pretty sure most of us have. I know I have and I’ll not mention any names of companies or software that I have had issues with. But my point is that sometimes the Help and support of a technology are crucial in enhancing usability, and if it’s not good, the user will turn immediately to any alternative, including traditional methods.

Take for instance Skype, the technology I am assessing. I had some technical issues before hosting the video conference with my team-mates so I accessed the Skype Help page. When I couldn’t find the information I needed, I contacted their support desk. With only a day or two remaining before the video conference, I crossed my fingers and hoped that they would get back in time. They did – and within an hour!

It’s just another tick I can add to why I like Skype. Good Help, backed up by excellent customer support, are reasons that increase my confidence and abilities with using a technology.

Have you tried using your Help yet?

The following quote in the e-book ‘Voice Over Internet Protocol Architecture and Features’ by Abdul Sattar Mohamand inspired my thought today: 

Note: Skype is a VoIP and PSTN are regular phones.

‘The most deteriorating disadvantage of VoIP is that it is new to the ordinary customer, that is, it has not gained a specific level of user experience which is the most attractive aspect of marketing innovative products of VoIP. VoIP technology is still developing and a VoIP provider needs high skilled experts to solve the day to day problems occurring during the use of the service. PSTN on the other hand has a vast infrastructure for customer care and skilled technicians which are available at the ease of a call.’

http://books.google.ie/books?id=guprsQQMQg0C&pg=PA19&dq=voice+over+internet+protocl+advantages+and+disadvantages&hl=en&ei=1yRXTf_zG9SxhQfqwpjhDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

A review of Skype

14 February

We used Skype for the first time today to have another team meeting. It is brilliant, but for those of you using Skype, you may relate with the frustrations we felt as well!?

Our difficulties lay with the Video Conference facility. The first issue was that some members needed to download the most up-to-date version of Skype – version 5.0 – in order to use the facility. Unfortunately, one team member’s computer crashed when she tried to do this and we lost her from the meeting (her internet connection had actually caused some difficulties in test calls before the meeting so it appears that a strong internet connection is vital for the smooth operation of Skype video calls). The second issue was that another team member had problems hearing us because of the background noise in the room she was in so she needed to find a quiet room in which to talk. When she resettled, we were not able to actually see her (but could hear her voice). I’m not sure why this happened – it may have something to do with the settings in Skype which just need tweaked.

Lucky we had Chat tools to back us up while all of this was going on…!

In my last blog, I addressed that I wanted to specifically assess the following:

• the sound quality of the conference call – it was excellent.
• if team members are comfortable using it to interact – everyone seemed to be.
• if team members speak in turn and not over each other – yes they did. It was just like communicating as if we were in the same room.
• if the connection and quality is good and consistent – the connection was good except for one team member’s computer crashing (which resulted in her not being able to attend the meeting).
• if we need to use the other tools/features, provided by Skype, for the discussion. And if so, if these tools are effective for their purposes – we used the Chat tools feature briefly and it was fine (in fact it was a life saver when some team members were having problems connecting to the video call). We didn’t need to use the other tools.
• if it is successful for resolving any issues and moving forward in our project (some of the articles on this subject mention how it is particularly effective for problem solving and negotiation in teams) – yes, we were able to discuss any issues much faster than if we were using Chat tools or other forms of technology.
• if body language has an effect on the interactions, i.e. whether you can see it clearly on webcams and if it helps (this is largely subjective but interesting all the same) – it was great to be able to see each other – I felt it added a personal element to the interaction. Although, we were not able to see one team member which made it difficult to know if she was there or not (especially when she was listening to the conversation).

After we discussed the report, we chatted casually about Ireland and America. I imagine this is what the literature terms as ‘socio-emotional communication’ – the type of communication that builds rapport. I am not sure if it did not but it added a bit of fun to the communication in my opinion.

We used both Pamela and Audacity to record the meeting. However, we had some problems with Pamela and were relieved that we had Audacity to back up the recording. Use Audacity!

Introducing the technology and team

The technology - Skype

For the virtual team assignment, I have chosen to evaluate Skype, a Voice over Internet Protocol technology.

Although Skype has been around since 2003, I have only recently started using it. Before I started this course, I had to use it to communicate with the Documentation Manager of a company I worked for – he worked from home half of the week so Skype was one of the main technologies we used to communicate. I was really impressed with it! I actually sometimes found it more advantageous to chat with him over Skype because he had to schedule me in to meet online and devote that time to our project (whereas in the office, he was often distracted or interrupted by other people). The sound quality of the call was excellent and we were able to exchange files easily. Also, it was easy to ask him the odd question instantly using the Chat tools feature of Skype. My main concern was getting used to chatting directly to someone online. I felt a little self-conscious at first, but after a while, it was fine.

Although I am already familiar with Skype, I am interested to see how it works in a virtual team environment where there are more than 2 people using it to communicate. The most up-to-date ‘standard or free’ Skype now allows you to make conference calls to 2+ people so our team is going to use it to meet during our assignment. I am particularly interested to assess:

• the sound quality of the conference call
• if team members are comfortable using it to interact
• if team members speak in turn and not over each other
• if the connection and quality is good and consistent
• if we need to use the other tools/features, provided by Skype, for the discussion, and if so, if these tools are effective
• if it is successful for resolving any issues and moving forward in our project (some of the articles on this subject mention how it is particularly effective for problem solving and negotiation in teams)
• if body language has an effect on the interactions, i.e. whether you can see it clearly on webcams and if it helps (this is largely subjective but interesting all the same).

I may use ‘Pamela’ to record the meetings (see the first link below). This is free to download and is compatible with Skype. However, it can only record 15 minutes of a conference call so it is not perfect. I may instead use podcast technology to record the meeting (see the second link below)

http://www.pamela.biz/en/

http://hubpages.com/hub/Using-Skype-For-Podcasting

I have looked at other blogs on Skype but so far I have seen nothing worth reporting. The articles posted on Sulis such as ‘FlammiaClearySlattery2010’ are very useful for ideas.

My team

My team consists of Brian Carrigan, Katrina Slammon, John Savage, Stacey Marmorstein, and me. We are using Skype, Podcasts, Wikis, Chat tools and Blogs to collaborate. So far, we have used Chat tools for our meetings; we have made a Podcast (which we have sent to the US students); we have documented our meetings in Blogs; and we have uploaded our files to the Sulis Wiki. We have made substantial progress on the project but my main concerns/observations so far are:

• Virtual teams can lack the quality and revelations of informal face-to-face chats. A few of our ideas have arisen over coffee.
•  You have to wait patiently for replies to posts. This can slow progress.
• Although we have measures in place to make each other accountable, a lot of it comes down to trust.
• Chat tools, although good, are possibly not the best solution for meetings.
• If enough rapport has been built up in the team.
• Do you encourage people to use particular technologies more often so you can assess their use or do you not interfere and instead watch which ones they prefer to use?

The effects of these issues may become more apparent as the project progresses.

Maresa