VOSS: Next Steps in Articulating Success Factors for Distributed Collaborations

团队项目越来越多地涉及地理上分布的参与者。当前的项目建立在我们早期确定远程工作成功因素的研究基础之上。一个初步的远程协作理论已经被开发出来，当前项目的一个主要目标是验证和扩展这个理论。将为那些从事协作或计划协作的人开发一个在线协作成功向导原型，以评估他们的优势和劣势。向导逐步解决有关重要协作因素的问题，告知参与者他们的优势并提出改进建议。该项目将允许开发和改进协作成功向导，同时测试和扩展远程科学协作理论。参与向导之后将进行选定的访谈和现场访问，以评估其准确性、完整性和预测能力。此外，科学合作实验室的数据库将被更新，包括科学和工程以外的学术合作。分布式协作团队在科学、工程、政府和工业中越来越普遍。加深我们对成功与不成功的分布式协作的区别的理解，将有助于那些参与协作的人，以及那些开发或资助这种新形式的科学和工程工作的人。经过验证的远程协作理论和广泛传播的评估向导将帮助组织评估其远程协作的优势和弱点。向导将作为数据收集和理论验证的工具，但也将向其用户提供关于协作的优势和弱点的即时报告以及加强协作的建议步骤。

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.