Real Time Collaboration

Real-time collaboration is a critical complement to asynchronous collaboration. Both modes of collaboration have their strengths and weaknesses, and an organization should incorporate both to maximize productivity.

What is Real-time Collaboration?

In its simplest form, real-time collaboration consists of two or more people working together with the ability to share information and communicate in real-time. When you meet with your manager, you are partaking of real-time collaboration. This synchronicity is both the strength and weakness of real-time collaboration.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Real-time Collaboration

The strength of real-time collaboration is your ability to iterate quickly. You can ask and answer questions, brainstorm, and rapidly form, reject, or accept conclusions. Try doing that asynchronously. Or don't--we've all experienced the pain of trying to reach an important decision about a complex issue via a string of email replies.

The weakness of real-time collaboration is that it is real-time--it's more difficult to gather all the relevant parties at the same time, even with online tools. It's also the case that the pace of real-time collaboration places an emphasis on quick decisions and gut instinct, rather than more considered and leisurely data analysis.

That's why you need both real-time collaboration and asychronous collaboration.

Real-time collaboration can take place in a number of different modes--face to face, via conference call, or using online tools such as screensharing, instant messaging (IM), or group chat.

Combining Real-time and Asynchronous Collaboration

One of the innovative things about PBworks is its ability to combine real-time and asynchronous collaboration in a single platform. Workspaces, documents, and project management are all useful ways to interact asynchronously. They also serve as final deliverables and documentation. But PBworks gives you the ability to rapidly shift into real-time collaboration when necessary.

For example, from any screen within PBworks, you can see which other members of your organization are logged in, and you can engage any of those in 1:1 or group chat using a built-in web-based IM client. Once you initiate a chat, you can send a link to call them to the same page, so that they're viewing the same content. If you then wish to revise that content, you can initiate a live editing session so that others can see the changes you're making, as they happen. And if you decide you absolutely need to talk via the telephone, or you want to conference in someone who can't get online at that moment, you can initiate a conference call with one more click. The conference calling system calls the participants, so there is no need to fumble around with dial-in numbers and passcodes, or to wait for someone to remember to dial in. You can also add a new participant at any time.

Integration = Productivity

If you integrate real-time collaboration with asynchronous collaboration, you'll get more done, and your organization will be more productive.

Learn More

If you enjoyed this discussion and would like to learn more about PBworks and its real-time collaboration capabilities, you can watch an overview video. Or if you'd prefer, you can jump right into a free trial.