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Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research

Publication ,  Journal Article
Cummings, JN; Kiesler, S
Published in: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW
December 1, 2008

Two recent studies of over 500 interdisciplinary research projects have documented comparatively poor outcomes of more distributed projects and the failed coordination mechanisms that partly account for these problems. In this paper we report results of an analysis of dyadic data from the most recent of these studies. The question we asked is, "Does prior experience with a collaborator reduce the barriers of distance or interdisciplinarity?" Analyses of 3911 pairs of collaborators found an answer: "In part, yes!" A prior project with a collaborator predicts greater strength of a current collaborative work tie. Prior experience also reduces the negative impact of distance and disciplinary differences. We discuss the implications of these results for CSCW, given the lack of evidence that today's technology eliminates collaboration barriers in distributed research. Copyright 2008 ACM.

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Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

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Publication Date

December 1, 2008

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437 / 446
 

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Cummings, J. N., & Kiesler, S. (2008). Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, 437–446. https://doi.org/10.1145/1460563.1460633
Cummings, J. N., and S. Kiesler. “Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research.” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, December 1, 2008, 437–46. https://doi.org/10.1145/1460563.1460633.
Cummings JN, Kiesler S. Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW. 2008 Dec 1;437–46.
Cummings, J. N., and S. Kiesler. “Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research.” Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW, Dec. 2008, pp. 437–46. Scopus, doi:10.1145/1460563.1460633.
Cummings JN, Kiesler S. Who collaborates successfully? Prior experience reduces collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW. 2008 Dec 1;437–446.

Published In

Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, CSCW

DOI

Publication Date

December 1, 2008

Start / End Page

437 / 446