Technology Will Make Collaboration Your Next Competitive Advantage - Technology Review

The first in a series of collaboration tool-focused Technology Review articles; see here for a single-page view

Technology-based platforms explicitly designed for collaboration arose in the late 1980s with the concept of "groupware" or "collaborative work environments." These made it possible for people to join forces even though they were working in different places and in different time zones. Lotus Notes brought the notion to the corporate market at a time when business use of the Internet was still in its infancy. As the journalist David Kirkpatrick wrote in 1992, "If groupware really makes a difference in productivity long term, the very definition of an office may change." With admirable prescience, he noted: "You will be able to work efficiently as a member of a group wherever you have your computer. As computers become smaller and more powerful, that will mean anywhere."

Technology Will Make Collaboration Your Next Competitive Advantage - Technology Review