Virtual Collaboration

RISO researchers have an active interest in the use of virtual collaboration applications in organisations. Of particular interest is the perception that whilst individuals appear to readily adopt new technologies that foster and support virtual networking in their personal lives, mixed results and relatively slow adoption seem to occur when large organisations attempt to introduce such technologies. Research is underway to explore the proposal that problems are rarely caused by technological failure but rather through a failure to understand the information and knowledge needs, the communication and collaboration needs and preferences of individuals and groups, political, historic and socio-cultural factors mitigating against successful adoption and implementation.  In addition, the potential for difficulties arising through organisations taking a traditional ROI-based viewed of justifying and implementing such IT investments is being investigated.