Welcome to It's a Wiki Wacky World...!

This site is a companion to the book Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools by Kit Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny. You can use this site to see how wikis work, to play in the Sandbox, or to view articles and other content pages as we add them. If you register your name and email address, you can also enter comments on the content, participate in our discussion forums, and upload articles that you've written. We hope that this site is useful to you! If you want to buy the book, check it out at http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9781598220285/It was originally published by Wordware Press, now part of Jones and Bartlett.

From the beginning of our careers, virtual teams have been an integral part of our work environments, to the point where we often take for granted the idea that we might never meet our colleagues in person, despite years of banter and collaboration via email and instant messaging. And, all three of us have also had the experience of being somewhat startled when we did finally meet our virtual colleagues in person, only to discover that they were completely different from way we had pictured them in our mind’s eye. For the most part, these virtual team experiences have been positive ones, and have given us opportunities to meet and work with people from all over the globe.

This book arose from discussions on various STC list serves about problems people were having with virtual teams and from issues that some of Kit’s clients were having with establishing virtual teams. From these questions and issues that some of her clients were experiencing, Kit realized that many people still struggled with working virtually, and that the books that existed on the topic were outdated. Then, she started hearing about the wonder of wikis, and realized that wikis could solve many of the collaboration issues that virtual teams faced. So, at the STC conference in Seattle, she talked to Brenda, who had published several books, to find out what Brenda thought about the idea. Brenda loved it and the two began brainstorming. Char walked by at the perfect moment, and immediately offered her vast knowledge of tools. And, so our adventure began.

Because we live in three different time zones and are all self-employed, we used many of the techniques and tools we discuss in the book. (And, when we did not use the best practices, the lesson reminded us why it was a best practice.)

Our intent was to create a book that is easy to read, practical in its advice, and filled with anecdotes about working virtually. We wanted busy managers and technical folks to be able to read it quickly and glean ideas that they could apply immediately to their own situations. While we did some research and mention some of the more popular team theories, this book is not intended to be a research paper. Rather, it is based on our combined experiences working in the real world as members and managers of virtual teams.