| Tool / Medium |
Collaborative Advantages |
Collaborative Disadvantages |
Best Suited to Collaborative: |
| weblog |
easy to post & comment; content is subscribable/ publishable |
participation limited to comments
|
Conversations
|
wiki
|
anyone can contribute content
|
harder to learn; can be easily sabotaged; inelegant appearance |
Projects / Alliances
|
whiteboard
|
real-time; anyone can contribute content |
content only persists for duration of call; possible firewall issues |
Conversations / Projects
|
document-sharing
|
can be real time; anyone can contribute content |
possible firewall issues; attention is focused on a document |
Conversations / Projects
|
IM/skype/phone/ e-mail/ videoconferencing
|
real-time conversations; audio/visual context; speed |
content only persists for duration of call |
Conversations
|
mindmaps
|
shows and documents consensus |
can‘t capture detail
|
Projects
|
discussion forums
|
threading of comments; content is subscribable/ publishable |
limited contextual knowledge of participants; can attract undisciplined behaviours; threads can be hard to follow |
Conversations
|
community of practice/ interest spaces
|
organization; defined membership; multiple collaborative tools |
harder to learn; formality can reduce intimacy and level of participation |
Projects / Alliances
|
personal e-mail groups
|
flexible; personal; easy to use
|
e-mail overload/spam; threads get lost or hard to navigate and follow |
Projects / Alliances
|
social networking tools
|
large number of members; good way to find collaborators |
most actual collaboration is done using other tools and media |
Finding collaborators
|
in-person collaboration
|
easy; real-time; context-rich; flexible
|
expensive; time-consuming
|
All of the above if time & cost permits |
