Response to "The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams"
Online teams is a reality in my life, even outside of college. I intern at NARAL Pro-Choice America, and I'm working with 2 people in different time zones whom I've never met to put together a conference call for dozens of our affiliate organizations.
This is probably the highest form of online team work I've ever done. Our communication is solely through email and the occasional conference call. Frankly, I feel more responsible to people I haven't met than my best friend.
In fact, I work in a small department at my internship, and one of my colleagues who I work on projects for is based in Chicago. I've only met her once, and only for 5 minutes at that. Our relationship is kept up through email correspondence and GChat. Outside of the workplace, she frequently comments on my facebook page, which has developed kind of a a closer relationship with us, built on 5 minutes of real time and hours of online time together.
Of course I am much more productive with online teams at my internship than my school. Theoretically they are both the same, I am participating in both to further my career, but the different is in the short term I'm paying AU, but I'm being paid by NARAL. Being paid is a key reason for my quick correspondence online.
Perhaps It all comes back to the biggest motivators: Money and/or fame. Without those, would productivity (anywhere, let alone online with a team) exist?
Monday, March 15, 2010
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I would argue that those five minutes you spent with your colleague in Chicago formed a greater basis for your professional relationship than any interactions on Facebook or other motivators could have.
ReplyDeletegood post, internet is growing so fast and we can work with it now...
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