V IRTUAL T EAM T ECHNOLOGIES

Virtual teams began to be a reality with the advent of teleconferencing, which enabled groups to communicate synchronously in separate locations via audio. However, these groups had to have copies of mutual paper documents available at the outset of a meeting (or had to depend on fax to transfer documents across locations “on the fl y”), and there was a reduction in potential information via the voice-only medium, which was further muffl ed through a speakerphone arrangement. Video-conferencing potentially added another level of richness to such meetings, but the high costs and poor quality of transmissions reduced the demand for this technology. As with all technology, time has improved transmission quality, but costs are still relatively high.

By the late 1970s, the idea that groups could meet through the computer was being realized (Hiltz & Turoff, 1978). Computer conferences aimed to exploit the potential for asynchronous/separated meetings by providing a structured forum through which to exchange messages. In essence, this structure remains one of the key methods for facilitating asynchronous group interactions, although it is now manifested in the form of Internet tools such as email, chat rooms, bulletin boards, and listservs. These technologies tend to serve distance education and virtual com- munities rather than virtual teams in organizations.

The 1980s saw the development of more sophisticated forms of computer- based technology that exploited each of the combinations of time and place. Ventana’s Group Systems was designed to create an electronic meeting room to enhance support for face-to-face meetings. It provides features such as anonymous communications and support for various group process activities, such as idea gen- eration and voting. Later it was extended to support other types of meetings, espe- cially those that are synchronous but separated. Another software package that has

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probably had the biggest impact, in terms of numbers of users, on team work and virtual teams is Lotus Notes. It provides sophisticated asynchronous meeting support through “databases” that can store multimedia communications.

The idea that teams can utilize computer technology to enhance their work and group processes is often termed “computer-supported cooperative work” (CSCW). The products that support these activities are typically termed groupware. Groupware not only enables a full range of meeting types, but also supports the fl ow of documents across work tasks, and builds an organizational memory that can

be used to support future tasks (Coleman, 1997; Khoshafi an & Buckwitz, 1995).

Synchronous groupware includes (a) desktop and real time data conferencing, (b) electronic meeting systems, (c) electronic display, (d) video-conferencing, and (e) audio conferencing (Coleman, 1997):

Desktop and real-time data conferencing. This includes interaction via individual computer workstations, interchange and storage of common documents, plus additional facilities such as electronic chat, whiteboard, and desktop audio and video links.

Internet chat/instant messenger. Allows team members to have typed conver- sations. Whiteboard. Allows team members to view a shared document, to diagram

ideas on their computers, and to see the notations and comments of other participants.

Multipoint–multimedia technology. Includes full-motion video in addition to the chat, whiteboard, and audio links. Allows team members to see and hear one another and to create and edit still-frame documents or images.

Electronic meeting systems (EMS). Used in face-to-face settings to increase the productivity of group deliberation and decision making. EMS range in complexity from simple voting or polling systems, with wireless data-entry keypads that each participant uses to cast a ballot (and a projection system to process and display the results), to computer-aided systems in which each participant uses a laptop computer to provide input to a central display screen.

Electronic display. Computer-based whiteboards allow team members to

display the shared whiteboard on their computer monitors. Video-conferencing. Includes a combination of three technologies: desktop

video, specialized video facilities, and video walls. Desktop video allows audio and video communication and frequently includes document- sharing capabilities. Video facilities employs video equipment and high bandwidth networks that transmit full-motion video. Video walls are shared audio and video spaces that are open all the time. People in the halls, conference rooms, and offi ces of one location are continually able to see and hear team members in other locations walking through halls, working in conference rooms, and sitting at their desks.

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Audio conferencing. Where individuals communicate with each other using the traditional telecommunications infrastructure, the H.323 video-conferencing protocol, or the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), for example, a bridge- mediated conference call involving three or more participants.

Asynchronous groupware. Includes (a) e-mail, (b) group calendars and schedules, (c) bulletin boards and Web pages, (c) non-real-time database sharing and conferencing, and (d) workfl ow applications.

E-mail. A written message, that can have a computer fi le attached, is sent

over a network from one computer to another. Group calendars and schedules. Calendaring involves the manipulation of

information on an individual’s calendar; scheduling involves the communication and negotiation of information, meetings, and other items that need to be coordinated among individual calendars.

Bulletin boards and Web pages. These are shared work spaces for the post-

ing of messages and ideas, the display and editing of documents, and for non-real-time discussions about questions that do not require immediate answers. Bulletin boards or Web sites are accessible to all team members and selected stakeholders.

Non-real-time database sharing and conferencing. Shared database systems usu-

ally accept a wide range of data, including multimedia information. Information frequently is distributed on servers throughout the organiza- tion, and individual team members have extensive freedom to search the database and to transfer the information to personalized databases.

Collaborative notebooks allow the authoring and editorial access to a common notebook and facilitate and manage collaborative authoring, document sharing, and editorial review by multiple users.

Workfl ow applications. Allow the design and operation of repetitive business processes that involve sequential steps. Useful for teams that are engaged in assembly-line work, service, or production and those engaged in operational or reengineering tasks.

With the increasing bandwidth of the Internet, the full complement of document-based, audio, and video support will be readily available on every worker’s desktop and in their mobile computers. This can only increase the number of virtual teams that will be operating in organizations all across the globe.

V IRTUAL T EAM T ECHNOLOGIES