Computer Mediated Collaboration

Abstract

Computer-mediated collaboration is examined through the lenses of societal change and the dynamic nature of technology. Trends and contributing factors are reviewed in the context of the difference between going to work and doing work and the implications for collaboration using technology to overcome distance and time. The demand to work in situations where propinquity does not define the relationship of information, resources, and managerial structure is reviewed. The confluence of social changes and new technologies is examined including the emergence of Web 2.0. Four themes are explored as subsets of computer-mediated collaboration: peer review, engaged learning, consensus building and self-reflection. Technology applications related to these themes are addressed. There is a brief section on the future in which emerging technologies are explored as they relate to computer-mediated collaboration, especially mobile devices and other technologies that represent a merger of existing tool sets.