Skype, MSN, eMail and Collaboration

Right so here I sit at my laptop talking to a few friends simultaneously - how is this possible well the title should give you some idea. The concept of discussion and working to an end goal i.e. constructing and filling in a document is in my mind what collaboration is all about.

Now I work for a company that specialise in collaboration (well to a large extent) and as I remarked to a colleague today whilse at a French motor vehicle dealership (yes the French do make cars, fascinating!) because we are so exposed to a collaboration or process driven environment to such a high level we are constantly on the lookout for these situations and automatically assume a solution to the situation. Well at least I do.

So you can imagine how I can get when I speak to someone that either works for a company that does not allow tools such as Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo etc to be used - yes I know there are bandwidth considerations but lets be honest sending a mail to ask something that could be send via msn is hardly comparable (the email wastes a whole lot more). Enter the world of instant messengers!

Now picture this scenario... two work colleagues sit opposite sides of the office in order for them to communicate there are a few options:

1. Walk over and chat
2. Walk to get coffee and chat
3. Chat over the internal phone
4. Send and email
5. Instant Message

In points 1 and 2 - yes I would agree that you would probably do this as a break is a necessary evil and so is coffee... but you may be under a little bit of time pressure, or your colleague is, potentionally even on the phone etc...

Pt 3 may be an option unless your on the phone - but there are considerations such as should it be discussed open (in an open plan environment) or is there additional information that is required as part of the conversation.

Pt 4 requires opening up Outlook or the application that you use to send email and constructing an email based on the least amount of structure required for this medium. Now sending this email requires the recipient to wait for it to be delivered to his or her inbox... they will be required to open it... to click reply to all etc and reply... Yes I am making it sound like a long process its not really couple of minutes depending on the context.

Pt 5 is a little more adhoc than email, it is pretty much a case of open, select recipient (if they are online) type text wait for response. In most cases the recipient will have a window open up with message displayed or a already open window will flash. The recipient opens up replies and collaboration begins. The beauty of this form of communication is that the users can chat very quickly and pass information across a medium in a very unstructured form. From an infrastructure perspective it takes a load of the internal mail server - this is a good thing!

Both Pt 4 and 5 could occur whilst on the phone, in between working on a document etc...

What is quite humourous to note that in a company where collaboration via email or instant messenger is the norm, the workers can sit right next to each other and still use the electronic means of communication - LOL.

This is my favourite topic of discussion and I will be attempting a few more articles in the coming weeks exploring the concept...

Double/R