Defining Collaborative Virtual Workspaces

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1. Introduction
Hamilton Beazley once said “Knowledge is the new capital, but it’s worthless unless it’s accessible, communicated, and enhanced” (Beazley cited in Field, 2003). With the advent of all the possible tools and technologies available, especially on the internet today, accessing, communicating and enhancing knowledge has become so much easier.
This paper aims to discuss two of these tools and technologies, namely collaborative virtual workspaces and microblogging. These tools and technologies will be defined, how they are used, some of their advantages and disadvantages as well as how they can be utilised in Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management processes.

2. Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
2.1 Defining Collaborative Virtual Workspaces
Collaborative virtual workspaces allow people to work together, share documents, edit collaboratively and hold video and/or audio conferences. This is made possible through use of software created with collaboration specifically in mind. Being virtual workspaces also mean that users can collaborate with one another from anywhere in the world. There is no need for close physical proximity (ed. Young, 2010).
There are a multitude of tools that one can use in order to facilitate collaboration. Google Docs, for example is an online document editing tool that allows one to create, edit, share and access your documents/presentations/spread sheets/forms/drawings from anywhere, any time. At the time of writing this paper, it is free to use to anyone with a Google account and provides 15 GB of storage (https://drive.google.com).
Microsoft SharePoint is another such tool, which is more business orientated that allows for the storage, access and sharing of information within organisations ...

... middle of paper ...

...nly in a condensed form, because of the prospect of discussions and information sharing.

4. Conclusion
It should be clear that when it comes to creating, giving access to, editing and sharing information, collaborative virtual workspaces and microblogging simplifies these processes exponentially. Since they are relatively easy to use or learning how to use them can be easy, it can be easier to argue why to use these tools rather than keep away from them.
If used correctly and efficiently, they can be of great benefit to almost any organisations, especially if these organisations want to promote a culture of information and knowledge sharing as well as where organisations have branches in more than one geographical location. In essence, these tools help make information and knowledge accessible, communicable and may, to a great extent, allow for their enhancement.

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