As I write, I sit in my office, alone. There’s no one to see, no conversations to overhear, just the view out the window into my suburban neighbourhood. There’s no one out there either. It’s pretty clear that any group effort or collaboration isn’t happening. Worse still, I’m not sure if it should, or what important work needs to be done today, or how any events small or large might effect things. I am isolated, lost, unaware, and unmotivated.

Without communications technology, I’d stay this way for a long time. Fortunately, I have e-mail, IM, a cellphone, and other bits of technology to link me to the outside world. The quality and immediacy of these links are critical for productive collaboration in a remote setting.

There are delicate balances to maintain here as well. Stopping to read every e-mail message the moment it arrives is not generally a productive work habit, as the interruptions make work requiring coherent thought difficult or impossible. I also need to preserve some level of personal privacy that is at odds with revealing everything about my personal situation, moment to moment, as might happen with a live webcam. Finally, the technology needs to fit my work habits as much as is practical. Video conferencing systems work well enough, but if I have to schedule a meeting in a conference room to use them, then they’re irrelevant, since I have to stop work to use them. These telepresence systems fail because they are not integrated into the regular work process, and are nearly as intrusive as getting on a plane.

The links to moment-to-moment activities within the working group need to be more subtle and well integrated. In my current projects, the best technology is some of the oldest on the internet. I use a combination of instant messaging (IRC), source code control (CVS/SVN) and bugtracking (Bugzilla) with e-mail notifications. With these tools, I have some crude understanding of who in my work group is active, and what they’re working on, mostly in an immediate fashion. We could be doing a lot better with existing tools.

We have a live chat room of sorts that takes the form of an IRC channel. Through it, conversations can be had, or passively monitored about current goings on in the project. This IRC channel replaces the role of the common area in a physical office were people can congregate and talk within earshot of all group members. Questions can be asked and answered, with anyone jumping in at any time to participate. One-to-one conversations can be easily spawned off if the topic isn’t relevant to the group.

Micro-blogging networks such as Twitter and Facebook can also provide a similar level of immediacy, though the use of these example is primarly personal and leisure-focused, with often questionable relevance to a working group. That said, there is a huge value to providing this sort of feedback to the group, particularly as our personal and professional interactions are often not distinct. It is said that much business transpires on the golf course.

Virtual Work Groups need to constantly strive for more immediate feedback to compensate for the lack of physical contact. I’d suggest these groups err on the side of too much information and interruption, as the maintenance of personal relationships is critical to facilitation and motivation of the group.