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THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN COLLABORATION

Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight?

—AL BOLISKA, RADIO AND TV PERSONALITY

For many of today’s companies, technology that enables and facilitates collaboration is a necessity. Global Vision International (GVI) is such a company. GVI sends more than 3,000 volunteers a year to work on more than 150 humanitarian and sustainability projects in 40 countries. Although the company maintains three central offices—one in the United States, one in the UK, and one in Australia—nearly all of its staff of three hundred people work remotely.

According to GVI Marketing Director Aaron Chan, technological tools are essential to the company’s operations. “We rely on Skype and GoToMeeting to communicate as a team, share information, build on one another’s ideas, discuss strategies, check in with one another . . . just about everything.” GVI team members use Google Docs and Dropbox to store and share documents, share their calendars, and schedule meetings. “Google Calendar is a great tool for us. It automatically adjusts times for different time zones, and it lets us see at a glance when people will or won’t be online.”