NETWORKS AND IT

1
NETWORKS AND IT

• Several factors determine the IT technologies
  that could be used to provide communication
  support to a specific organisation or group of
  users
• Participants
• Nature of sources and destinations people,
  databases
• Location
• Time real-time
• Media

2
NETWORKS AND IT

• A TIME/ PLACE FRAMEWORK
• Same time/ same place
• Same time/ different place
• Different time/ same place
• Different time/ different place

3
NETWORKS AND IT
4
NETWORKS AND THE IT

• Electronic mail (e-mail)
• have been used for many years as an internal
  medium of communication
• with the Internet e-mail is able to connect
  people in different organisations who are working
  on different LANs using different hardware,
  operating systems, and communication systems
• people can use e-mail from whereever they are
  using regular telephone lines.

5
NETWORKS AND IT SUPPORTING COLLABORATION

• Benefits of working in a group
• groups are better than individuals at
  understanding problems
• people are accountable for decisions in which
  they participate
• groups are better than individuals at catching
  errors
• a group has more information than any one member
  and, as a result, more alternatives are generated
  for problem solving

6
NETWORKS AND IT

• Synergy can be produced, so the effectiveness
  and/ or quality of group work can be larger than
  the sum of what is produced by independent
  individuals
• Working in a group may stimulate the participants
  and the process
• Group members have their egos embedded in the
  decision they make, so they will be committed to
  its implementation.

7
NETWORKS AND IT

• Dysfunctions of Group Processes
• Social pressures to conform, groupthink, may
  eliminate creativity
• Group process can be time-consuming, slow, and
  costly
• Work done in a group may lack appropriate
  co-ordination
• Some members may dominate the agenda
• Some group members, free riders, may rely on
  others to do most of their work

8
NETWORKS AND IT

• The group may compromise on solutions of poor
  quality
• The group may be unable to complete a task
• Unproductive time is spent socialising, getting
  ready, waiting for people, or repeating what has
  already been said
• Members may be afraid to speak up.

9
NETWORKS AND IT

• GROUPWARE
• support groups of people who share a common task
  or goal and collaborate on its accomplishment
• workflow systems that are business process
  automation tools
• provide users with tracking, routing, document
  imaging
• screen sharing
• whiteboarding
• teleconferencing conference call
• videoconferencing

10
NETWORKS AND IT

• Electronic Voice Communication
• Interactive voice recognition (IVR) or Automated
  voice recognition (AVR)
• Voice annotation prerecorded comments for
  documents
• Voice mail