Collaboration via E-mail and Internet Relay Chat: Understanding Time and Technology    

The purpose of this preliminary study was to structure and begin to study how collaborators working across distance perceive and use e-mail and Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate their collaborative and decision-making processes. Students from the University of Western Sydney and the University of Minnesota worked in pairs to respond to four decision-making scenarios over a four-week period. Using e-mail, students came to a decision more quickly than when using IRC, and when IRC was slow, students reverted to a series of rapid-fire e-mail messages to facilitate their work. Students appreciated the cross-cultural experience; however, they struggled to create a shared communicative context via the Internet.

Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Collaboration>Email

International Communication Via the Internet: Processes, Modalities, and Socialization Using Computer-Mediated Communication  

Using case studies gathered from teaching projects, this paper analyses both electronic mail, and real-time chat data of pairs of American-Australian students. Results show distinct patterns of interaction concomitant with small group theory, but with marked differences with respect to modality. Survey data reveals idiosyncratic preferences for using either e-mail or real-n-me chat. Analysis of the actual discourse highlights contextual cultural difficulties such as level of language proficiency and organisational norms.

Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Cyberculture>Regional>Australia