Ass #2 Global Collaboration MIS420 Strg Info Sys

Global Collaboration - MIS402 Assignment # 2

Current technological tools that could be used to facilitate global collaboration

•E-mail - a way of transmitting messages over communication networks.
–First uses of the Internet.
–Composted primarily of text but can include other mediums (video, audio, etc.).–Mailing list server.

•Intranet - Looks and acts like the Internet–Comprised of information used exclusively within a company–Unavailable to the Internet community as a whole. 

•Instant Messaging (IM) – an IP-based instant communication application.

–Provides convenient communication between people using computers, cell phones, etc.

–Can be used to check on telecommuting employees by managers.

•Voice over IP (VoIP) - Method enabling telecommunications (phone calls) to be transmitted

over an IP based network.

–Skype is a type of VoIP system that permits users to make free phone calls over the Internet.

–Very useful for communicating with remote workers.

•Video Teleconferencing - set of interactive  telecommunication technologies allowing two or

more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously.

• Unified communications (UC) - an "evolving communications technology architecture which

automates and unifies all forms of human and device communications in context, and with a

common experience.

•RSS - refers to a structured file format for porting data from one platform or information system

to another.

Commonly used to keep up to date data at hand.

•VPN (Virtual Private Network) - private data network that leverages the public

telecommunication infrastructure.

–It maintains privacy through the use of a tunneling protocol and security procedures.

–Very useful for telecommuters.

•File Transfer - consists simply of transferring a copy of a file from one computer to another on

the Internet.

–File transfer protocol (FTP), the most common type. Permits transfer of files, of almost any

size, to be sent across a company or the globe.

•Thomas Friedman argues that collaboration is the way that small companies can “act big” and

flourish in today’s flat world.

•Social networking - a web-based service that allows its members to create a public profile

with their interests and expertise, post text and pictures and all manner of data, list other users

with whom they share a connection, and view and communicate openly or privately with their list

of connections and those made by others within the system (MySpace, Face Book, etc.).

•Virtual worlds  - computer-based simulated environments intended for its users to inhabit

and interact via avatars (like Second Life).

•Web logs (Blogs) - 0nline journals that link together into a very large network of information

sharing.

–Companies use for a variety of communication purposes.

•Wikis - software that allows users to work collaboratively to create, edit and link webpages

easily. 

•Groupware - software that enables group members to work together on a project, from

anywhere, by allowing them to simultaneously access the same files.