Ann M. Marcus and David Coleman, Collaborative Strategies, have completed a NewWOW.Net report on virtual team spaces (VTS). VTS tools are a subset of collaboration tools that have become a valuable web-based solution to the challenge of information and document sharing for distributed teams that must work together across distance and time. There are VTS tools that incorporate a wide range of specific application, as well as others that meet the needs only of a slender niche market. We are currently in a period of consolidation in which innovative technologies are being snatched up nearly as they emerge and incorporated into the toolboxes of a handful of major technology companies.
In the past, VTS tools allowed team members to communicate asynchronously – to check in and respond to message threads and document additions as their schedule allows. But increasingly VTS tools are designed to allow synchronous communication, including video and audio conferencing, instant messaging, presence detection and availability status, knowledge capture, and many more capabilities.
The full report is available to New Ways of Working Network members at www.NewWOW.net/members.
