Skype Journal - Research Topics in Collaboration

Phil Wolff, @evanwolf

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Research Topics in Collaboration

Phil Wolff

21 October 2009

1. Introduction.............................................. 2

2.Collaboration in Skype’s Roadmap............ 3

1.Until now…. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Skype will commoditize
minutes and Make Skype
minutes more valuable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3. Collaboration Research will

show how to make Skype

minutes worth more. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

4. Collaboration is a

competitive edge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. Research Areas.......................................... 6

A. Get Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1. Ridiculously Easy Group

Formation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2. Group Goal Forming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3. To Do Lists, Calendars,
Personal Time Management,
and Getting Things Done
Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4. Fame and Reputation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

B. Be Better Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

5. Augmenting Inline

Conversation............................... 11

6. From Discovery to Action. . . . . . . . . . . . 12

7. Decision Making and

Decision Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 8. Collaboration Afoot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 9. Situational Awareness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 10. How Collaborators Use

Search and

Personal/Collective memory. . . . . . . 14

11. Gestures of Tomorrow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

C. Cross Boundaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

12. Intergroup Collaboration. . . . . . . . . . . . 16

13. Earning Trust and Using

Whuffie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

14. Collective Presence and

Project

Presence/ActivityStreams. . . . . . . . . . . 17

15. Transparency and

Collaboration.............................. 18 16. Backchannels.............................. 18 17. Scaling Collaboration from

Tasks to Projects to

Programmes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4. About Phil Wolff..................................... 21

Phil Wolff, @evanwolf

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1.

Introduction

I’ve been blogging about collaboration since 1998. If

the 1990s were about personal productivity, and the

2000s were about connecting the world, then this next

decade will be about working together. I’m happy the

new Skype Labs is working on the future of

collaboration.

What don’t we know? What can we learn about

conversations that result in work product? What can
we learn from failures? What knowledge could
unleash the collective power of five hundred million
Skype users?

In this paper I outline areas of study that could shape

the design of collaboration tools and technologies.

Before outlining a few areas I’d love to investigate,

let’s look at how collaboration fits into Skype’s future.

Phil Wolff, @evanwolf

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2.

Collaboration in Skype’s Roadmap

1.Until now…

I see two stages of Skype’s product innovation in its

first six years.

Skype made VoIP easy and reliable. Then it poured the
network into many operating systems, mobility and
devices. Now everyone has more access to the Skype
network. [Somewhere along the way Skype played
with video, games, commerce, and public voice
forums. Some failed; others, like video, are here to

stay.]

These innovations gave Skype a large, growing user

population. Sadly, its rate of growth is slowing.

2. Skype will commoditize minutes and Make Skype

minutes more valuable

Skype’s next major stage of product innovation does

two opposing things at the same time.

On the one hand, Skype is commoditizing its
infrastructure. Skype has been opening up its network
and telephony services to third-party distributors and
developers. You can see this in Skype For SIP, Skype for
Asterisk, and the web platform being built on Skype
Lite. So while Skype sells minutes, third-parties
innovate with vertical applications.