Introduction

This document is an evaluative glossary of terms associated with virtual teaming, remote working and virtual learning.

It defines these terms as we use them in our WORKING BY WIRE ^TM virtual teaming, remote working and e-tools best practices training and consulting.

I gratefully acknowledge contributions by my colleague Dr George Metes.

Notes

• This is not an Internet glossary.
• Cross-references are in capitals.
• Definitions that we've encountered but don't use ourselves are given in italics, as are comments.
• Product and company names may be trade or service marks and are acknowledged.
• This glossary is copyright (c) Knowledge Ability Limited, 1999 - 2007. All Rights Reserved. The intellectual property throughout is owned outright by Knowledge Ability Limited. Under fair use copyright conditions, permission is granted to quote portions and extracts unaltered for non-commercial purposes, on the condition that the source is acknowledged. No permission is granted for any commercial use whatsoever of this glossary or the material in it, although such permission may be given on application in writing. This glossary may contain errors. It is supplied without express or implied warranty.
• Please reference this glossary as: Gundry, John. "Virtual Glossary, version 18". Knowledge Ability Ltd, Malmesbury, UK. Published at www.knowab.co.uk/wbwglossary.html. October 2007.

The Virtual Glossary

A

Agility

An enterprise-wide strategy for being competitive in conditions of change. Agility grew out of lean manufacturing in the 80's and was comprehensively defined under the leadership of The Agility Forum at the Iacocca Institute PA in the early/mid 90's. Agility emphasises the turbulence of today's markets and business environment, and describes four strategies for competitive survival:

• Enriching the customer
• Mastering change
• Leveraging resources
• Co-operating to compete

Each of these strategies can be enabled and accelerated by the virtual, network-based business processes that are described in this glossary, particularly VIRTUAL LEARNING, VIRTUAL TEAMING and VIRTUAL WORK (which is why the term is here). These approaches are described in detail in our book Agile Networking (Prentice-Hall PTR, 1998). See also BUSINESS AGILITY.

Our sister company Agility International presents more about agility here.

Asynchronous

Anytime. When applied to COLLABORATION TOOLS, it refers to those such as E-MAIL and DISCUSSION FORUMS where messages are stored and forwarded so that participants do not have to be in the communication session at the same time.

Attention economy

A term highlighting that for many people their time is a more precious and negotiable asset than their money.

Audio conferencing

A COLLABORATION TOOL that allows three or more people at two or more sites to take part in the same telephone call. Also knows as a con(ference)-call, a tele-conference or a hook-up.

We provide remote training in Audio Conferencing Best Practices (see our e-tools best practices page).

B

Blended learning

A process designed with the aim that someone learns from a combination of non-interactive E-LEARNING plus interactive ONLINE LEARNING or face-to-face delivery. For example, delivery via a CD-ROM, DVD or web page combined with NETWORKED LEARNING or face-to-face seminar.

Blog

A web page principally containing a text field composed of diary or journal entries. The term is short for weblog.

Other features of the page are typically (i) a profile of the author (ii) a list of the author's recommended web sites (iii) a field for readers' comments (iv) a way of accessing archived entries (v) a permanent link to an entry which will survive its relocation.

A blog is typically used by an individual to publish his or her personal journal or diary to an Internet audience. The expectation is that the contents are their own authentic unedited work. However, groups can author blogs, and it is not unknown for blogs to be used for marketing.

Business agility

A recent (2001 onwards) interpretation of AGILITY used as a value proposition by a number of technology and services vendors. There is no agreed definition but some common themes are emerging: organisational flexibility and adaptability, speed of operations and some elements of customer relationship management.

These themes derive from the original AGILITY strategies of the 1990's, but are not the complete set. Much of business agility is based on virtual business processes which is why the term is included here.

Our sister company Agility International presents more about business agility here.

C

Chat room

An Internet service based on what is now known in the corporate world as INSTANT MESSAGING through which people communicate remotely with each other in short written messages which appear on their computer screens like a play script. Chat rooms are widely used for hobbies and leisure interests.

A chat room is not the same as a DISCUSSION FORUM. The former provides same-time (SYNCHRONOUS) interaction, whereas the latter provides anytime (ASYNCHRONOUS) interaction.

Circuit rider

A role associated with a VIRTUAL TEAM or DISTRIBUTED GROUP whereby someone travels between sites as a messenger to transfer information and views between them. This person is usually, but need not be, the manager or leader.

Collaboration

Literally working together: closely-integrated joint activity between two or more people. TEAMS are characterised by requiring and building the environment for high levels of collaboration amongst their members. A simple index of the level of collaboration amongst a set of people is the difficulty of replacing someone.

Collaboration suite

A product that offers an integrated set of COLLABORATION TOOLS for remote users, accessible through a uniform set of web pages. Typically these provide for ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION through SHARED FILES, DISCUSSION FORUMS, and sometimes shared calendars, contact lists and databases. Some products also provide for SYNCHRONOUS collaboration through SHARED APPLICATIONS, INSTANT MESSAGING and streaming video.

PROJECT PORTALS are collaboration suites, as are a number of tools described by vendors as team workspace, digital workplace, collaborative workplace, etc.

Collaboration tool

Any COMMUNICATION technology that allows two or more people to COLLABORATE at a distance.

Co-located

In virtual work terms, within 30 metres or on the same floor. Research shows that when people's desks are separated by more than 30 metres or one floor, their level of spontaneous face to face interaction falls to the same very low level of people who are located in different buildings, even different cities. So we cannot assume that people are enjoying the interaction frequency of co-location unless they're sitting less than about 30 paces from each other.

Communication

Strictly, the exchange of meaning. Less strictly, the exchange of information that may have meaning. Not to be confused with CONNECTIVITY.

Concurrent work

Work that, because of quality and time demands, is performed in parallel with other work that it depends on, or that depends on it. Contrasted with serial work, in which work outputs from one stage of a process are independently completed before being handed over to the next stage.

If concurrent work is not to diverge, there must be continuous communication between people whose work is in a dependency relationship. Concurrent work is often the result of concurrent engineering or cross-functional teaming programmes, and is often performed by VIRTUAL TEAMS.

Connectivity

Physical or electronic connection between machines.

D

Discussion database

A term used in the Lotus Notes product for its DISCUSSION FORUM functionality.

Discussion forum

A COLLABORATION TOOL that allows a number of people to take part in anytime, anyplace, written discussions using a computer. It differs from E-MAIL because discussions are indexed by topic as well as chronologically, and because the forum or conference must be accessed by the user from a server, rather than messages being sent to their e-mail inbox (although e-mail distribution can be set up as an option in some systems). A discussion forum is an example of a PULL TECHNOLOGY.

A discussion forum can be thought of as a cross between E-MAIL and a FACE TO FACE MEETING. It's like e-mail because ASYNCHRONOUS computer messages are exchanged. It's like a meeting because everyone in the room (subscribers to the forum or conference) can hear (read) what everyone else says (writes).

A fashionable way of describing discussion forums is to say that they operate like a group BLOG.

Other terms for discussion forum are computer conferencing (the original term for the tool which was invented in 1977), message boards, discussion boards and bulletin boards. Internet NEWSGROUPS are examples of wide-scale discussion forums, but with short message retention times.

A discussion forum is not the same as real-time chat. That is SYNCHRONOUS, whereas a discussion forum is ASYNCHRONOUS.

Dispersed team

I use this term for a TEAM that is physically or organisationally or culturally dispersed, and behaves as though it is. A dispersed team is a fragmented set of people that are not working together (COLLABORATING) and hardly warrants the term "team". Although a dispersed team looks like a VIRTUAL TEAM from the outside, it does not behave like a team or reach the performance levels of a team; it is a failing team.

Many people find themselves in dispersed teams when they are working with colleagues at a distance, but have not acquired the skills to be a virtual team. Our virtual teaming and remote working services move teams from being dispersed to being virtual.

Distributed

A number of items comprising a system of some kind that are not CO-LOCATED.

Distributed group

A GROUP whose members are not CO-LOCATED. Distributed groups may or may not use COLLABORATION TOOLS, but most are likely to, in which case they are a less cohesive version of VIRTUAL TEAMS. (For some reason, it has become common to talk of distributed groups and virtual teams, but rarely virtual groups.)

"Distributed group" was also the term used in the late 80's and early 90's for what we now call a virtual team, before that term was invented.

Distributed team

A rarely-used synonym for a VIRTUAL TEAM or a REMOTE TEAM.

E

E- or e-

A prefix that denotes any process mediated electronically, particularly by the Internet. See for example the following definitions.

E-business

Conducting business through the Internet rather than through traditional communication methods such as phone, letters and FACE TO FACE MEETINGS.

E-business is more extensive than E-COMMERCE, which is just one e-business process. An e-business uses Internet-based communications to enable (and often reconfigure and optimise) processes such as administration, customer service, design, finance, HR, partnering, R&D, supply chain management, etc.

Much of e-business is accomplished by VIRTUAL TEAMS and VIRTUAL ORGANISATIONS.

E-commerce

Buying and selling through the Internet, rather than through a traditional channel such as a store or mail order catalogue. Also known as e-tailing.

E-learning

A process designed with the aim that someone learns through interaction with an electronic learning technology.

E-learning ranges from what used to be called computer-based training, through ONLINE LEARNING where remote resources are accessed through a computer network (typically the Internet), MOBILE LEARNING (access via a mobile telephone or Personal Digital Assistant) through to NETWORKED LEARNING which involves networked discussions with fellow learners and/or the tutor.

Electronic whiteboard

A COLLABORATION TOOL that has two forms.

• The older version allows two or more REMOTE people connected by a network to draw or type onto a common window shown on their computer screens.
• The newer version is often called an interactive whiteboard but I call it a REMOTE WHITEBOARD.

E-mail

A COLLABORATION TOOL for sending principally written messages to individuals or an address list by computer. Built for one-to-few messages, and good for some types of communication but by no means all, e-mail has crowded out many equally-valuable collaboration tools.

E-mail is a PUSH TECHNOLOGY and a significant accelerator of information overload in today's wired organisations.

We provide face-to-face and remote training in E-mail Best Practices and a consulting service Beating Email Stress (see our e-tools best practices page).

F

Face to face meeting

A COMMUNICATION event for two or more temporarily or permanently CO-LOCATED people, in which all the participants are physically present in the same place. It typically involves use of travel technologies by some or all participants.

Facilitator

A person who has the role of assisting the progress and success of a COMMUNICATION or COLLABORATION process. Facilitators can be needed in AUDIO CONFERENCES, VIDEO CONFERENCES, and, most significantly, in DISCUSSION FORUMS. And, of course, a FACE TO FACE MEETING.

Flexible working

Any working arrangement that regularly departs from the traditional 'regularly based in an office from 9 to 5' pattern, particularly when that arrangement is formally recognised between employer and employee.

The arrangement of interest here is TELEWORKING, but flexible working also encompasses MOBILE WORKING, hot desking, flexi-time and annualised hours, working from 'office hotels', and job-sharing.

G

Global virtual team

A term used by some authors to describe a VIRTUAL TEAM that exists across more than one country, thus emphasising the likelihood that its members are crossing organisational and cultural boundaries in their work. But since this can also be true of virtual teams working within one country, I don't see this as a very useful definition.

Group

Any set of people that naturally refer to themselves as "we". A group is characterised by its members' need to collaborate moderately to synchronise and co-ordinate its work. Beyond that, a group doesn't need the high levels of COLLABORATION required by a TEAM. A group's output is like the sum of its members' outputs.

Also used for an organisational unit, when 'department' would be a better term.

I

Interactive whiteboard

See REMOTE WHITEBOARD.

Instant messaging

A COLLABORATION TOOL where two or more people communicate via computer by exchanging short text messages in real-time (SYNCHRONOUSLY). The discussion appears like a play script on participants' computer screens. Instant messaging requires that everyone be at their computer at the same time, and so should not be confused with a DISCUSSION FORUM, when people can communicate anytime.

Users can usually also determine if other named people are signed on to their computer, and then request and initiate a discussion with them

While its ancestor, real-time chat, was originally seen as leisure tool through its embodiment in CHAT ROOMS, instant messaging (essentially a rebranding for the corporate market) is popular in business as a cheap and convenient way of communicating SYNCHRONOUSLY with a few remote people, without the expense or bother of establishing an AUDIO CONFERENCE.

Internet time

Describes the accelerated pace of work transactions that occurs when near-instant Internet connectivity drives communication, rather than the postal service, telephone, or FACE TO FACE MEETINGS.

Intranet

An organisation's internal network that uses HTTP and HTML etc. protocols to provide for internal use the type of information and COMMUNICATION facilities provided by the (public) Internet. These typically include web pages, NEWSGROUPS, and E-MAIL.

J

Junk mail

E-MAILS that are judged by the receiver to be irrelevant, regardless of the (sometimes good but often not) intentions of the sender. See also TUNA.

L

Learning by Wire

Our proprietary remote instruction methodology that employs BLENDED LEARNING techniques.

Listserve

An E-MAIL-based COMMUNICATION technology using a distribution list. An e-mail sent to a listserve's special address is automatically re-sent to all addresses on a distribution list. A listserve list can be MODERATED, in which case someone approves incoming e-mails before they are distributed.

Listserves are often confused with DISCUSSION FORUMS. However, a listserve's messages are not organised by topic, and are pushed into subscribers' e-mail inboxes rather than being pulled from a central index.

M

Mobile learning

A process designed with the aim that someone learns from text and graphics presented on a mobile telephone or Personal Digital Assistant. Mobile learning is a sub-set of E-LEARNING.

Mobile working

Working anywhere while using wireless networks and portable devices to COMMUNICATE and access information. It is not the same as TELEWORKING, which means working from a fixed location which is not the office. Mobile working is a sub-set of FLEXIBLE WORKING.

Moderator

Someone who leads a DISCUSSION FORUM in the role of either chairperson, FACILITATOR, or both. Also someone who polices a LISTSERVE.

Multi-tasking

Working on a number of projects or activities at the same time. Multi-tasking is often a consequence of working in VIRTUAL TEAMS.

N

NetMeeting

A SHARED APPLICATIONS, desktop VIDEO CONFERENCING, ELECTRONIC WHITEBOARD (older version), and CHAT ROOM product from Microsoft Corporation.

Networked learning

An educational process based in collaborative (peer-to-peer) learning that uses DISCUSSION FORUMS to allow interaction amongst learners and tutors.

I invented the term in 1991. Networked learning is a sub-set of ONLINE LEARNING.

Newsgroup

A form of DISCUSSION FORUM that runs publicly on the Internet.

O

Online

Mediated by a computer connected to a network providing access to a remote resource or other people.

Online collaboration

The process supported by COLLABORATION TOOLS which are ONLINE. Online collaboration ranges in intensity from document sharing, through the co-ordination of work in DISTRIBUTED GROUPS, to the close COLLABORATION exhibited in VIRTUAL TEAMS.

Online conferencing

Another term for using a DISCUSSION FORUM which I used in previous versions of this Glossary. Also see VIRTUAL CONFERENCE.

Online learning

A process designed with the aim that someone learns from an ONLINE resource. NETWORKED LEARNING is a sub-set of online learning which specifically includes interaction between learners and/or tutors.

P

Project portal

A sophisticated web page or web site that presents highly-structured links to SHARED FILES and sometimes COLLABORATION TOOLS and other shared services such as calendars and databases. The rationale is that a project team access the portal as their single information repository and collaboration toolkit.

This is an example of what I call a COLLABORATION SUITE.

Pull technology

Any COMMUNICATION technology that lets individuals pull messages or information they are interested in from a collection or index, when they want, as they would in a library. For example, DISCUSSION FORUMS, NEWSGROUPS, web pages. When we are in control by pulling we do not experience so much information overload.

Push technology

Any COMMUNICATION technology that sends messages or information to people. For example, E-MAIL and 'news lists'. Pushing messages at people increases complaints of information overload and JUNK MAIL.

For more on information overload, see our White Paper Information (and Email) Overload.

R

Remote

Not CO-LOCATED.

Remote whiteboard

These are based on various methods of capturing electronically anything written or drawn freehand on a full-sized whiteboard. The captured drawing or writing can then be sent over the internet to another location, where it can be projected onto a screen, or viewed on a PC. When two remote whiteboards are working together, people in two meeting rooms can collaborate on plans, diagrams, graphs, etc.

These are called interactive whiteboards by their makers because they can be used with a data projector as a large touch-screen for a PC. However, it is the remote collaboration aspect of these technologies that concerns us here, hence my calling them remote whiteboards.

Remote work

Working at a distance from others - typically managers, peers, colleagues or clients - or not being CO-LOCATED with them. Performed by REMOTE WORKERS, TELEWORKERS or MOBILE WORKERS or members of VIRTUAL TEAMS.

For most purposes, remote work can be taken as a less-jargon-sounding synonym for VIRTUAL WORK. However, strictly, the term virtual work emphasises that people are working across organisations and cultures as well as distance

We provide face-to-face or remote training for remote workers, see here.

Remote workers

People who undertake remote work, as per the above.

RSS

Most often standing for Really Simple Syndication, RSS is a facility offered by websites that publish news or which change rapidly.

A user having an aggregator facility can sign up for an RSS feed from multiple sites offering the service. Changed content (or a summary of or notice of changed content) from all those sites is sent to and displayed by the aggregator, which may be a web page, a piece of local software or indeed a function in a mobile telephone. Thus a user can construct their own stream of constantly-updated news feeds.

S

Shared applications

A COLLABORATION TOOL that allows two or more people to see application windows on each others' computer screens, remotely. Any application's window can be shown and seen, for example, a word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, or project management application. The computers connect through a server connected to an internal network or the Internet.

A well-known shared applications package is part of Microsoft NETMEETING.

Shared disk

A COMMUNICATION technology whereby computer files can be accessed on a corporate network from a specified disk location. Shared disk is a rather old-fashioned way of distributing documents and simplifying version control, and is being replaced by SHARED FILE facilities.

Shared files

A facility provided by some COLLABORATION TOOLS, but especially PROJECT PORTALS and COLLABORATION SUITES whereby computer files uploaded to the tool's web site are available for downloading by others with access to the tool. The shared file area (a.k.a. library or repository) is usually structured into folder and sub-folder hierarchies and can incorporate search and sophisticated document management functions.

Shared files are a development of the functionality offered by the Internet file transfer protocol.

Synchronous

Same time. When applied to COMMUNICATION tools, it refers to those such as phone, AUDIO- and VIDEO-CONFERENCING, REAL-TIME CHAT / INSTANT MESSAGING and FACE TO FACE MEETING, where participants must be in the communication session at the same time.

T

Team

I like this from Katzenbach and Smith's 'The Wisdom of Teams', (HarperBusiness 1994): "A small number of people with complementary skills, who are committed to a common purpose, common performance goals and a common approach, for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." A less heuristic definition is "A number of people engaged in joint activity."

A team is characterised by its need for high levels of COLLABORATION amongst members. A team's output is like the product of its members' outputs.

The label 'team' is often misused by those who wish to dignify a GROUP with an impressive name. This is team snobbery, and if taken seriously can lead to misapplied resources and unfulfilled expectations.

Teleworking

Working away from an employer's site using information and communication technologies, usually at home but sometimes on the road or in a VIRTUAL OFFICE. Teleworking typically involves agreeing with one's employer to work wholly or part-time from home as a long-term arrangement. Also known, particularly in the USA, as telecommuting..

Teleworking is a sub-set of FLEXIBLE WORKING and people who telework are REMOTE WORKERS OR VIRTUAL WORKERS.

Teleworking is not exactly the same as homeworking, because the latter does not necessarily mean using information and communication technologies.

Also sometimes applied to a self-employed person who works at home and uses information and communications technology to exchange work results with colleagues and clients. This definition, when used in employment surveys, includes as teleworkers many people who would not consider themselves such, for example self-employed builders.

Trust

The judgement whether people (or sets of people) can be relied upon to act in ways that do not harm us or are positive for us. When we judge that they will do so we regard them as trustworthy.

We make judgements about trust when we are vulnerable to others because their actions can put us at risk. For example: a team member and their manager, a manager and a team member, team members and their colleagues, employees and their employers.

TUNA

An acronym I invented for Totally Uninteresting News and Admin, intentionally mimicking the term SPAM.

TUNA is JUNK MAIL and other irrelevant E-MAIL that originates from inside the organisation, rather than from outside. It contributes to information overload and clogged networks while camouflaging important e-mails.

For more on TUNA see our White Paper Information (and Email) Overload.

V

Video conferencing

A COLLABORATION TOOL that appears in two forms.

• Plenary video conferencing provides a two-way, video and audio connection between a number of sites, at each of which a number of people can be present, typically in a specially-equipped room. The set-up involves a BRIDGING SERVICE that is normally provided by the equipment supplier.
• Desktop video conferencing uses a personal computer, camera and speaker connected across a network to allow individuals to see and hear each other through their computers.

Virtual

Virtual in the present context is an adjective meaning that effects or perceptions are not the result of the physical presence of something (the noun it qualifies), but are enabled or simulated by computers and networks, as in V. TEAM, V. ORGANISATION and V. UNIVERSITY.

Other terms employing 'virtual', such as V. LEARNING, V. OFFICE and V. WORK, derive from the above virtual artefacts, rather than 'virtual' directly.

I believe that the term derives from the computing term 'virtual memory', which is RAM that isn't resident in the RAM chip, but is the result of addressing long-term storage media. The computing term in turn derives from the optics term 'virtual image', which is how the image created by a concave lens is modelled.

It's common, but unhelpful, to label anything to do with the Internet as 'virtual'.

Virtual conference

A web site that presents conference papers and sometimes DISCUSSION FORUMS, CHAT ROOMS and WEB CONFERENCING to simulate the experience of attending a real conference. If a sponsored commercial venture, the site also presents sponsors' marketing materials.

Also sometimes described as an online conference.

Virtual learning

A distance learning process in which both instructors and learners are at multiple sites, and may be from multiple institutions. Often provided by a VIRTUAL UNIVERSITY and using ONLINE LEARNING processes.

Virtual meeting

A meeting where the participants are not CO-LOCATED. Can be a same-time meeting using AUDIO- or VIDEO CONFERENCING, ELECTRONIC WHITEBOARDS, INSTANT MESSAGING or SHARED APPLICATIONS, or extended over a period using DISCUSSION FORUMS.

Virtual office

One or many workplaces of people engaged in TELEWORKING or REMOTE WORK / VIRTUAL WORK.

Also used to describe (a) a fully-featured portable computer (b) business services that answer one's telephone and provide an accommodation address for post (c) a room or desk hired in a serviced office 'hotel'.

Virtual organisation

A working arrangement established by a number of organisations to perform a task or pursue a specific opportunity, usually on the basis of complementary resources. Staff members are drawn from the subscribing organisations, and undertake VIRTUAL WORK from their local bases rather than travelling to a common office. The working units of a virtual organisation are usually VIRTUAL TEAMS.

Its earlier form was a consortium, in which staff did tend to travel or re-locate to a common office to work together.

Some people use the term to describe a single organisation in which VIRTUAL WORK is the norm.

Virtual reality

A technology that provides a simultaneous auditory, visual and sometimes haptic and kinaesthetic sensation of interacting with a simulated environment.

Virtual team

I use 'virtual team' to describe a set of people who are

• a TEAM, rather than a GROUP,
• not CO-LOCATED,
• and who predominantly use COLLABORATION TOOLS rather than travelling.

The 'VIRTUAL' in means that its operation is enabled by computing and networking, and ‘team’ that its members operate as a TEAM.

A virtual team differs from a DISPERSED TEAM because it has acquired the skills and competencies to act as a TEAM, even though members are apart from one another. So a virtual team is a more successful, effective and personally-satisfying development of a DISPERSED TEAM.

Our virtual teaming and remote working training and consulting moves teams from being dispersed to being virtual.

Virtual university

A university that predominantly uses VIRTUAL LEARNING processes to provide distance learning and sometimes also student administration and services. It may or may not be composed of a number of participating institutions (cf. VIRTUAL ORGANISATION).

The term is also sometimes adopted by wired-up training departments in posh companies.

Virtual work

Work that is undertaken by people who not CO-LOCATED with their colleagues, co-workers, manager, peers or clients, and who use COLLABORATION TOOLS rather than travelling. People who work virtually are usually members of VIRTUAL TEAMS or TELEWORKERS or MOBILE WORKERS.

Virtual work has a less-jargon-sounding synomym, REMOTE WORK.

We provide face-to-face or remote training for virtual workers, see here.

W

Web conferencing

A SYNCHRONOUS technology that allows people to view on their web browsers a slide presentation or video stream from a remote source. The presentation may or may not be accompanied by an AUDIO CONFERENCE. Some providers' web conferencing systems also offer SHARED APPLICATIONS.

Wiki

A COLLABORATION TOOL comprising a web page that can be easily edited by anyone with access to it. A wiki is usually a mechanism for a number of people collaboratively to author a web page. The term comes from the Hawaiian wiki wiki meaning hurry (why?).

Associated with the main wiki page is typically (i) a record of who edited the page when and of those edits (ii) an area for contributors to communicate with each other.

Wikis work best with a small group or community of trusted contributors adhering to a defined collaboration process. (Wikipedia — a million pages of collaboratively-written encyclopaedia — is not a free-for-all although often mistaken as one: contributions are post-moderated by a hierarchy of editors.)

Working by Wire

A trademark of Knowledge Ability Ltd identifying our portfolio of training and consulting services for remote work and virtual teaming and the electronic workplace.

For more on our Working by Wire services, see here.

Working together apart

A synonym for VIRTUAL TEAMing. 'Working' identifies that a virtual team is there to do something, 'together' that they are a team, and 'apart' to their non-co-location. Especially used to distinguish a VIRTUAL TEAM from a CO-LOCATED TEAM, who are working together together.

"Working together apart" was the subtitle of my colleague Dr George Metes's 1992 book 'Enterprise Networking' about virtual teams and distributed business processes.