The formal structuring of work has been found to be particularly useful in coordinating virtual collaboration (Hoch & Kozlowski 2014; Steinhardt and Jackson 2014). A fundamental approach to structuring work involves breaking tasks down into discrete, manageable chunks. This notion of task decomposition is at the root of everything from the division of labor to the work breakdown structure process in project management (March & Simon 1958; PMBOK 2001).
Knowledge management can be defined as the “management of organizational knowledge for creating business value and generating a competitive advantage. Knowledge management enables the creation, communication, and application of knowledge of all kinds to achieve business goals (5).” This resource guide is loosely based off a framework established by Amrit Tiwana in The Knowledge Management Toolkit, and modified to fit projects of a scientific nature.
Online communities are persistent collections of people with common or complementary interests whose primary method of communication is the Internet (Preece, 2000; cited in
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While effective communication can be a challenge in any team science endeavour, it is especially critical to ensure meetings held in a virtual setting for geographically separated teams are executed in a way that best serve to build trust and rapport among team members while working towards achieving team goals. It is essential to be considerate of time zones and potential communication barriers, and norms for both regular communication and scheduled meetings should be established early on in the collaborative process.
