What is “collaboration”? The question is frequently asked, and in common definitions collaboration is painted as a particular type of human behavior, and includes no reference to technology. In this post, let’s tackle the collaboration and technology issue.

“Collaboration” and “technology” go together in many phrases … “collaboration technology” and “collaboration tools” are the two most common. When the phrase is used together, it’s an attempt to classify and group a set of technologies that can be used by people for collaboration. The technology isn’t collaborative! Only people can be, but the current challenges of the world means that technology is frequently required to bring people back together.

I link people and technology through this progression in my masterclasses:
– Collaboration is nothing new.
– People have been collaborating for all human history.
– What’s new is …
– … the pace of business.
– … the global nature of working with others.
– … the IT savvy of new employees.
– … the technology options to support collaboration.
– We are used to working with others in person.
– We are much less used to working with others at a distance
– Collaboration technology is needed to bridge the divide.

There are other factors too at play too:
– The increased complexity of work. There are no simple answers. Many problems / opportunities require the accumulation of input from many experts.
– The increased specialization of expertise in many disciplines. This fragmentation of expertise makes it more likely that multiple people will have to work together.

Model for Collaboration Technology
There are many models for classifying / grouping / differentiating “collaboration technology”:
– my 7 Pillars framework for team collaboration.
– my Four Foundations framework for organizational collaboration.
– Jed Cawthorne’s five sub-categories of collaboration tools.
– the four-way division of Messaging, Team Collaboration, Real-time Collaboration, and Social Computing (by Forrester, I think).
– the three point continuum of freeform, workspace, and highly structured.
– Lokesh Datta’s taxonomy of collaboration tools.

“Technology That Is Used Collaboratively”
In some of my workshops, I’ll throw out this line: “There is no such thing as collaboration technology. There is only technology that is used collaboratively.“

Which is why:
– Email can be used collaboratively. Or not.
– File shares can be used collaboratively. Or not.
– Instant messaging can be used collaboratively. Or not.
– Team workspaces can be used collaboratively. Or not.
– Twitter can be used collaboratively. Or not.

So it’s not the technology itself that really matters, it’s how the technology is used. I talk about it as “collaboration friction” … that each technology has a particular friction profile. There are some activities that a particular technology does well and where it smooths the process of collaboration for people. There are also activities that a particular technology does poorly, where it increases the collaboration friction between people.

What Else is “Collaboration”?
In this post I have looked at “collaboration” in one sense of the term — as a set of technologies (sense 1 was Collaboration as “Human Behavior”). The third and final post in this “Defining Collaboration” series will explain why “collaboration” is such a hot topic at the moment.