VOSS: Next Steps in Articulating Success Factors for Distributed Collaborations

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Increasingly, team projects involve geographically distributed participants. The current project builds on our earlier research identifying success factors in distance work. A preliminary Theory of Remote Collaboration has been developed, and a major goal of the current project is to both verify and extend this theory. A prototype online Collaboration Success Wizard will be developed for those engaged in collaboration or planning to collaborate to assess their strengths and weaknesses. The Wizard steps through questions about important collaboration factors, informs the participants about their strengths and suggests improvements. This project will allow development and refinement of the Collaboration Success Wizard while testing and extending the Theory of Remote Scientific Collaboration. Participation in the Wizard will be followed up with selected interviews and site visits to assess its accuracy, completeness, and predictive capabilities. In addition, the database of collaboratories in science will be updated, including scholarly collaborations beyond science and engineering. Distributed collaborative teams are increasingly common in science, engineering, government and industry. Deepening our understanding of what differentiates successful from unsuccessful distributed collaborations will aid both those engaged in collaboration and those developing or funding this new form of science and engineering work. A verified theory of remote collaboration and widely disseminated assessment Wizard will help organizations assess their strengths and vulnerabilities for distance collaboration. The Wizard will function as a tool for data-collection and for theory-validation, but will also provide its users with an instant report on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the collaboration and suggested steps for strengthening it.