Working together

Humans interact in three basic ways: conversing, transacting and collabororating.

If you want to make the correct choice with regard to software technology, you have to see through the differences that are significant between those interactions.

An interaction of conversation is an exchange of data and transactional interaction is an exchange of a transaction substance between 2 or more participants, whereas an interaction of collaboration is meant for a modification of a collaboration entity, ex.: reaching a shared goal.

Collaborative interactions are organized in such a way that the main objective of the participants is to change the collaboration substance from what used to be unfixed and immaterial, for instance, an idea, into a useful solution, for instance a design solution.

Collaborative software

Collaborative software is related to groupware programs that make it easier for people share information and work together on various tasks.

The strong point of these tools is in the ability to allow users to see action plans, exchange documents, track projects, supervise schedules, optimize business processes, be promptly reminded of any tasks and activities they are involved in. There are a lot of approaches to making these applications useful: scheduling activities, papers and projects, facilitating business processes and coordinating work of two or more departments or even companies.

Advantages in Using Computers for Collaboration

Collaboration software integrates a number of planning, event oriented and moderation activities into a unified software package that links cooperation with coordinated execution to reach the goal of seamless, non-obscure, efficient cooperation between people and organizations.

It makes it possible that you receive all the advantages of an intranet or Internet:

- Moderate access to all documents and tasks securely via intranet to everybody on the team, depending on their roles or administered permissions

- Maintain joined and individual to do lists, acitivities and schedules to simplify the management of group jobs .

- Sent automatic notifications about jobs and current progress to make work-in-progress transparent for all people

- Build a prominent action plan to hit assigned goal posts and objectives, helping the company to be more effective, less conservative in overall activities

- Avoid typical miss-communication slip-ups with the assistance of a coordinated work effort

Software Instruments for Collaboration

You will easily find many kinds of software instruments for collaboration:

- Internet collaborative tools (you will need Internet access)

- Desktop collaborative solution (requires Intranet access)

Or

- E-calendars for people to arrange panel gatherings, events and notifications

Workflow or project management applications (facilitate the management of tasks, projects and related documents)