Mobile collaboration and community technologies are critical to the success of many virtual teams, including mobile professionals and telecommuters. The following exclusive excerpt from The Mobile Learning Edge by Gary Woodill, E.D. (reprinted by arrangement with McGraw-Hill Professional and also available as a PDF download) outlines the many levels of collaboration using mobile devices and what's needed to make mobile collaboration work for virtual or distributed teams.

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Collaboration and Community

As social beings, humans are naturally attracted to being part of a community. Computer networking allows the development of many more connections among people then were possible in the past. With mobile technology, remaining connected to one’s network is now possible regardless of where one is physically located. As Mary Chayko (2008) notes in Portable Communities: The Social Dynamics of Online and Mobile Connectedness, we can now take our social relationships with us wherever we go. Chayko says that members of online communities “think in tandem”; they share a “cognitive connectedness” through stories and collective memories. The feeling of connectedness involved when people are connected electronically can be just as strong as the bonds between people who meet each other face to face. When these bonds of connectedness and support grow to the point that we feel we are part of a virtual group of coworkers and fellow professionals, we then can speak of being part of a “community of practice.”

One of the most powerful ways to learn is through collaboration with others. In the past, this has generally meant being in the same room with coworkers in order to work together on projects. The more of us there are who work virtually and connect to our colleagues through mobile devices, the more mobile collaboration is a reality for many.

Collaboration using mobile devices can take place at several different levels. At the lowest level, collaboration simply means being able to access e-mail or instant messages from colleagues and send replies. Often, this requires software to coordinate a company’s servers with the various mobile devices that employees take with them when they are mobile.

The second level of collaboration using mobile technologies is to enable people to meet while some or all of the participants are on the road. The easiest way to achieve this is through a conference call involving all participants.

It can also be achieved through laptop or mobile phone connections with high-speed WiFi networks, often available at hotels.

A third level is to use online meeting software that is specifically designed to include mobile devices. Vendors now offer products that will support mobile collaboration at all these levels. Unified communication and collaboration (UCC) is a concept promoted by many different vendors although it is relatively expensive to set up. In 2008, Johna Johnson of Network World estimated that the average cost for a mobile employee is around $2,200 per year, including hardware, software, services, and support.

Even though collaboration technologies are now available, research shows that collaboration will not spontaneously take place without a structured and regulated socially shared learning process (Ja¨rvela¨, Volet, and Ja¨rvenoja, 2005). Organizing mobile collaboration tasks as “mobimissions” that include challenges and a sense of adventure motivate collaborators to work together.

Another motivator for mobile collaboration can be a shared sense of social purpose. For example, the MobileActive.org Web site brings together activists who are using mobile technology to achieve social change. Another type of mobile collaboration involves asking individuals to make small contributions to a larger collective project. Known as “crowd sourcing,” this movement harnesses volunteers and paid workers to solve problems that are difficult for an individual or small group to solve on their own.

For organizations, mobile collaboration will most likely happen as part of the work of virtual project teams. One of the new business skills to emerge is the ability to both motivate and manage mobile virtual project teams. Leading and managing such teams can be more difficult than contending with a face-to-face group. In a Canadian study (Hambley et al., 2007), qualitative data were collected through comprehensive interviews with nine virtual team leaders and members from six different organizations. The most common challenge appears to have involved solving problems across multiple time zones. Study participants also believed that ineffective leaders lacked vision, strategy, and direction, and that they were unable to run effective virtual team meetings or to “read” and “hear” cues from team members while using virtual conferencing software.

Other issues involved with leading virtual project teams include lack of facial and body language cues to validate team members, participants’ fears of isolation from each other, communicating changes in operating procedures, and a higher demand for individual accountability because of delays resulting from lack of preparedness. All these issues are exacerbated for those leading virtual project teams, and recovering from making errors takes longer than it does when teams work together face to face.

One solution to this problem is that leadership of mobile virtual project teams can be shared so that no one person actually manages the functioning of the group alone. When no designated leader is assigned to a group, we say that the group has “shared leadership” or is “self-managed.” Once the members of a mobile virtual team are integrated into a social group, their mobile phones can become the means of “hypercoordination” where members continuously send messages to each other updating their status, location, and thoughts.

Much advice about leading mobile virtual teams revolves around fostering positive and respectful relationships among team members who hold each other accountable and support each other through difficult situations. The same also holds true of professional relationships in the onsite workplace; however, mobile virtual relationships face unique challenges that take more work to maintain and nurture. But if a collaborative mobile virtual team is right for your organization, the rewards can be well worth the effort.

Mobile collaboration is a relatively new phenomenon that will develop new methods and new technologies in the near future. Nick Jones (2009c) expects that we will see voice-controlled wikis (a wiki is an online document that anyone can edit), shared mobile screens, and multiple points of view merged together on mobile phones in the near future.