Aaron Carpenter's blog

There is one major problem that I’ve noticed with online collaborative projects: There is no real way to force anyone to check their email on a regular basis. Yes, there are other ways to try and keep in touch, such as sending them tweets or god forbid, having to call them, but the fact of the matter is that if someone doesn’t want to participate or can’t, there is simply nothing you can do to change the matter. In a world full of deadlines, this makes it hard to get real work done.

Granted, in a way this is a bit of a non-argument. This has been a problem way before the Internet was invented by Al Gore. I imagine ancient Romans were getting sloshed on wine and missing votes, to the aggravation of their fellow toga-wearing public. My point is that technology was supposed to make it easier for us to get work done. Now we can telecommute in our pajamas and Skype with our bosses while wearing slippers, and no one would be the wiser.

The problem is that the computer world is a virtual world, and therefore more easily ignored. It’s hard to argue about which is more important when there is a real person in front of you demanding attention right now. Suddenly everything that needs to be done on that beige box in the corner doesn’t matter. Yes, the real world should take precedence, but deadlines are still deadlines, whether they are online ones or not.

Even though online collaboration tools are useful and offer possibilities that face to face interaction can’t, there is still a time and place for actually meeting the people you are working with. A grainy webcam is a sorry substitute for being able to look someone in the eye and see what they are actually feeling. There is a disconnect in the virtual world which makes it easier to not give the attention to a subject that it really deserves. In a way, this ties in with the Atlantic article, “Is Google Making us stupid?” It’s almost as if we are overwhelmed with the huge amount of information at our fingertips and we can no longer focus on just one thing and do it well. There are too many sources vying for our attention.