Team Report (Krystal & Stacia)
In order to tackle the question ‘What is the fundamental economic basis of Internet commerce?' Team Seven started off strong by deciding to work together on our collaboration and development of the project task on Teambox. Teambox was the collaboration tool reviewed by team member Stacia Grooby, and it was seen as the most suitable and versatile online collaboration tool for our needs as it not only provided real-time communication through instant messaging but also interactive e-mail notifications for those who weren’t online at the same time.
To begin the development process of outlining our assignment, the team discussed and co-ordinated to select a major Internet business that would be appropriate as a case study in relation to the assignment question. Adam, who was self-assigned as Team Liaison with the acceptance of the rest of the team, decided on Spotify. The team agreed as we believed it was a strong platform which had seen great success despite its short lifespan in comparison to comparative services, and displayed strong understanding and utilisation of fundamental e-commerce basics.
With the foundations of our team now set, we move forward with establishing and delegating tasks. This is where cracks in our collaboration began to show. We did not take advantage of the opportunity to break down the subject matter and outline the report efficiently.
The assignment was initially broken down into the following segments to be handed out to the five team members;
At this time the scope of our report was uncertain. Had we communicated and planned more effectively we may have spotted the possible issues of our task list. Members self-assigned the tasks; respectfully the initial selections covering major segments of the report. In the case of members, Krystal and Stacia, who were absent on the day (23/06/2013); they were assigned the responsibility of what was left over. Together they chose to take on what was left in partnership as they felt that it would be an imbalanced workload otherwise. Each member was expected to fulfil their area of responsibility and complete their specific task by the due date;
Progressing towards the due date of the report outline, it became clear that our ability to communicate and collaborate was severely lacking. While various team members did attempt to present research they had discovered or the weekly tasks, Adam being the frontrunner of such, there was rarely any follow through and conversation became more one-on-one irregular comments between members. Attempting to amend this members Krystal and Stacia scheduled a Skype meeting, unfortunately not all members were able to attend due to work commitments.
The outline for the report was submitted by the team and feedback from the tutor did identify areas that needed addressing within our report structure; primarily the lack of focus on the ‘big picture’ and the need for more consistent collaboration. This did spur the team into what was our most successful Skype session with all but one member able to attend; issues were addressed both concerning the report and the team collaboration with favourable results. Skype was still a difficult means of communication for various members but the activity on Teambox increased with members actively conversing. It may have been a case of too little too late, however, with the final results of the team collaboration remaining to be seen.
Our final list of task delegation;
This assignment was the first group work for many of our members and each handled the situation differently. All in all, it can be agreed that the issues that may have arisen during this assignment were not desirable but that each team member did treat the experience as positive; we feel that in a lot of ways it was a beneficial learning experience. Teamwork is not always as successful as planned and learning how to cope and address those situations will be valuable for future scenarios. We have decided to include a few words of reflection from each member to express their thoughts on the process;
“This was my first collaborative assignment and I think even harder with no face to face contact. As I mentioned in our discussions, I wouldn’t know of any other way to collaborate other that each of us having our own sections to work on, as long as it all flows in the end. It was a pleasure to work with you all.”
- Peter
“Personally I believe that the methods used during this assignment were sufficient and beneficial for team collaboration. The only notable downfall was how Teambox did not provide real time collaboration, therefore those who were equipped used Skype for more intensive communication, which proved to work well. The main thing I have learnt from team collaboration is to communicate early, clearly, and use appropriate tools.”
- James
“I was fortunate enough to pair up with Krystal which I believe made this experience more enjoyable for me on a personal level. We collaborated well with Skype communication and a few ‘real-life’ meet-ups. I would’ve liked to work more closely with the other team members but enjoyed the interaction we did have, and feel that considering the hurdles we came across the team showed character in not allowing it the project to dissolve.”
- Stacia
“Group work has proven to be quite challenging. Commencing this unit, the thought of a collaborative group assignment based primarily online had me nervous. Thankfully, Stacia and I took the opportunity to meet up irrespective of the 45-minute commute that enabled us to work together effectively. I feel during this assignment I have gasped a better understanding of effective team collaboration and will approach future group tasks with a better awareness.”
- Krystal
In order to tackle the question ‘What is the fundamental economic basis of Internet commerce?' Team Seven started off strong by deciding to work together on our collaboration and development of the project task on Teambox. Teambox was the collaboration tool reviewed by team member Stacia Grooby, and it was seen as the most suitable and versatile online collaboration tool for our needs as it not only provided real-time communication through instant messaging but also interactive e-mail notifications for those who weren’t online at the same time.
To begin the development process of outlining our assignment, the team discussed and co-ordinated to select a major Internet business that would be appropriate as a case study in relation to the assignment question. Adam, who was self-assigned as Team Liaison with the acceptance of the rest of the team, decided on Spotify. The team agreed as we believed it was a strong platform which had seen great success despite its short lifespan in comparison to comparative services, and displayed strong understanding and utilisation of fundamental e-commerce basics.
With the foundations of our team now set, we move forward with establishing and delegating tasks. This is where cracks in our collaboration began to show. We did not take advantage of the opportunity to break down the subject matter and outline the report efficiently.
The assignment was initially broken down into the following segments to be handed out to the five team members;
- Person 1 – Internet Business Basics
- Person 2 – Network Economy
- Person 3 – Attention Economy
- Person 4 – Team Report
- Person 5 – Collection, formatting, proof-reading, presentation and submitting of final report
At this time the scope of our report was uncertain. Had we communicated and planned more effectively we may have spotted the possible issues of our task list. Members self-assigned the tasks; respectfully the initial selections covering major segments of the report. In the case of members, Krystal and Stacia, who were absent on the day (23/06/2013); they were assigned the responsibility of what was left over. Together they chose to take on what was left in partnership as they felt that it would be an imbalanced workload otherwise. Each member was expected to fulfil their area of responsibility and complete their specific task by the due date;
- Krystal & Stacia – Internet Business Basics
- Peter – Network Economy
- Adam – Attention Economy
- Krystal & Stacia – Team Report
- James – Collection, reformatting, proof-reading, presentation and submitting of final report
Progressing towards the due date of the report outline, it became clear that our ability to communicate and collaborate was severely lacking. While various team members did attempt to present research they had discovered or the weekly tasks, Adam being the frontrunner of such, there was rarely any follow through and conversation became more one-on-one irregular comments between members. Attempting to amend this members Krystal and Stacia scheduled a Skype meeting, unfortunately not all members were able to attend due to work commitments.
The outline for the report was submitted by the team and feedback from the tutor did identify areas that needed addressing within our report structure; primarily the lack of focus on the ‘big picture’ and the need for more consistent collaboration. This did spur the team into what was our most successful Skype session with all but one member able to attend; issues were addressed both concerning the report and the team collaboration with favourable results. Skype was still a difficult means of communication for various members but the activity on Teambox increased with members actively conversing. It may have been a case of too little too late, however, with the final results of the team collaboration remaining to be seen.
Our final list of task delegation;
- Introduction (Krystal & Stacia)
- E-commerce (Krystal & Stacia)
- Business Models (Krystal & Stacia)
- Spotify Case Study (Krystal & Stacia)
- Freemium Business Model (Peter)
- The Network Economy (Peter)
- Copyright (Peter)
- The Attention Economy (Adam)
- The Gift Economy (Adam)
- Conclusion (James)
- References (Stacia, Krystal, Peter & Adam)
- Page Design/Customization (James)
- Upload, Proof-Read & Final Editing (James)
- Image Sourcing (Stacia, Krystal, Peter & Adam)
- Team Report (Krystal & Stacia)
This assignment was the first group work for many of our members and each handled the situation differently. All in all, it can be agreed that the issues that may have arisen during this assignment were not desirable but that each team member did treat the experience as positive; we feel that in a lot of ways it was a beneficial learning experience. Teamwork is not always as successful as planned and learning how to cope and address those situations will be valuable for future scenarios. We have decided to include a few words of reflection from each member to express their thoughts on the process;
“This was my first collaborative assignment and I think even harder with no face to face contact. As I mentioned in our discussions, I wouldn’t know of any other way to collaborate other that each of us having our own sections to work on, as long as it all flows in the end. It was a pleasure to work with you all.”
- Peter
“Personally I believe that the methods used during this assignment were sufficient and beneficial for team collaboration. The only notable downfall was how Teambox did not provide real time collaboration, therefore those who were equipped used Skype for more intensive communication, which proved to work well. The main thing I have learnt from team collaboration is to communicate early, clearly, and use appropriate tools.”
- James
“I was fortunate enough to pair up with Krystal which I believe made this experience more enjoyable for me on a personal level. We collaborated well with Skype communication and a few ‘real-life’ meet-ups. I would’ve liked to work more closely with the other team members but enjoyed the interaction we did have, and feel that considering the hurdles we came across the team showed character in not allowing it the project to dissolve.”
- Stacia
“Group work has proven to be quite challenging. Commencing this unit, the thought of a collaborative group assignment based primarily online had me nervous. Thankfully, Stacia and I took the opportunity to meet up irrespective of the 45-minute commute that enabled us to work together effectively. I feel during this assignment I have gasped a better understanding of effective team collaboration and will approach future group tasks with a better awareness.”
- Krystal