The Use of Current Collaboration Technology in Group Work

Collaboration Technology is defined by Wikipedia as technology "designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals". The use of such technology is being used throughout the world from students working on class projects, to major businesses networking internally.

There are many types of collaborative software around the internet, many of which are free to use. There is social networking, like Facebook or Twitter; there are blogs and wikis; there is the use of cloud networks, and much more. All of these are useful when working in a group. Tony Byrne, President of The Real Story Group, wrote in an article of the top 5 tools in collaboration technology. The 5 tools he suggests are:

1. File sharing
2. Blogs
3. Wiki's
4. Micro-blogging
5. Forums

Each of these tools is a great asset to a company or group. The most useful, in my opinion, is that of file sharing. There are programs like Google docs that allow multiple people to be working on the same thing at different places in the world. I am currently involved in a group project and we are putting all of our research and assignments together using Google docs.

The use of Collaborative Technology is a great resource for all types of groups. They allow information to be passed on to members at a fast rate and allow instant feedback.

Works cited:

Wikipedia dictionary, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software

Tony Byrne "How to Use Internal Collaboration and Social Networking Technology", http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/03/internal-collaboration-and-social-media-technology.html

What a Professional Blog Can Do

We live in a time where communication is the fastest it has ever been and businesses and organizations have been customizing themselves to the luxuries that the internet brings. With the internet, a business or organization can communicate to others and have instant feedback. One way to communicate is through the use of a blog. About.com suggests that a blog can be used as "a corporate tool for communicating with customers or employees to share knowledge and expertise"(par 6).

A blog can be very helpful in marketing a product, sending out information, selling items, and many other things. One blogger uses a blog for a nonprofit fitness challenge. The blog tells participants weekly challenges, allows users to submit points, updates team standings, and provides links to healthy websites. Doing this helps the participants to stay motivated in building better habits in life.

Another blogger uses his blog to display his photography he does. He is a professor at BYU-I and displays his scenery photography to students and others so they can see different types of shots.

Blogs are a great resource to businesses as well. Businessweek.com says that by reading other blogs, a business can find out who is "talking about your business, engaging your employees, or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush" (par 4). Blogs can do many things for a business and are a great marketing tool. They can provide links to products or websites, critique other businesses and help them to stay honest, take polls, and much more.


Works Cited:


http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm

www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

darrenclarkphoto.net/blog/

buildinggoodhabits.blogspot.com