Distance matters

Giant strides in information technology at the turn of the century may have unleashed unreachable goals. With the invention of groupware, people expec t to communicate easily with each other and accomplish difficult work even though they are remotely located or rarely overlap in time. Major corporati ons launch global teams, expecting that technology will make "virtual collo cation" possible. Federal research money encourages global science through the establishment of "collaboratories." We review over 10 years of field an d laboratory investigations of collocated and noncollocated synchronous gro up collaborations. In particular, we compare collocated work with remote wo rk as it is possible today and comment on the promise of remote work tomorr ow. We focus on the sociotechnical conditions required for effective distan ce work and bring together the results with four key concepts: common groun d, coupling of work, collaboration readiness, and collaboration technology readiness. Groups with high common ground and loosely coupled work, with re adiness both for collaboration and collaboration technology, have a chance at succeeding with remote work. Deviations from each of these create strain on the relationships among teammates and require changes in the work or pr ocesses of collaboration to succeed. Often they do not succeed because dist ance still matters.