Challenges in Virtual Collaboration: Videoconferencing Audioconferencing and Computer--Mediated Communications

Abstract : This report was developed as part of a larger project on aids to high-level national-security decision making. It discusses the effects of the medium of collaboration (face-to-face, videoconferencing, audio-conferencing, or computer-mediated conferencing) on group processes and outcomes. Virtual collaborations are collaborations in which the people working together are interdependent in their tasks, share responsibility for outcomes, are geographically dispersed, and rely on mediated, rather than face-to-face, communication to produce an outcome, such as a shared understanding, evaluation, strategy, recommendation, decision action plan, or other product. This report summarizes the research literature on how the processes and outcomes of virtual collaborations are affected by the communication medium, discusses how problems in such collaboration can be mitigated, and suggests a strategy for choosing the most effective medium as a function of task and context. The focus is on interactive collaborations in real or near-real time.