Everyone seems to agree that service orientation is hot, but they all seem to have different views of what it is. To some, it's essentially about Web services standards. To others, it's about service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Everyone seems to agree that service orientation is hot, but they all seem to have different views of what it is. To some, it's essentially about Web services standards. To others, it's about service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Collaborating on work across distances has always been difficult. We fly groups together to work temporarily as a single team on a critical project issue. We have regularly scheduled conference calls; we have videoconferencing rooms. We rely deeply on e-mail to stay in step. We try to build single Web-based repositories of project knowledge that are accessible throughout an organization. It has all been a struggle. Distance is misunderstanding. Distance is wrong interfaces. Distance is friction. But now we are witnessing the positive effects of distance beginning to shrink. The next generation of collaboration tools is here, or at least the early arrivals are here. Broadband access is the underlying technology for all these tools. The videoconference room is dead, and collaboration is moving out of meetings and into its most useful place: the daily lives of project members.

Collaborating on work across distances has always been difficult. We fly groups together to work temporarily as a single team on a critical project issue. We have regularly scheduled conference calls; we have videoconferencing rooms. We rely deeply on e-mail to stay in step. We try to build single Web-based repositories of project knowledge that are accessible throughout an organization. It has all been a struggle. Distance is misunderstanding. Distance is wrong interfaces. Distance is friction. But now we are witnessing the positive effects of distance beginning to shrink. The next generation of collaboration tools is here, or at least the early arrivals are here. Broadband access is the underlying technology for all these tools. The videoconference room is dead, and collaboration is moving out of meetings and into its most useful place: the daily lives of project members.

"So now that we've committed to outsourcing, how do we manage it? We don't need any more consulting about what's the best way to go about outsourcing, now we need some practical guidelines on how to keep from falling on our face!" (Comments heard at an outsourcing conference.)

"So now that we've committed to outsourcing, how do we manage it? We don't need any more consulting about what's the best way to go about outsourcing, now we need some practical guidelines on how to keep from falling on our face!" (Comments heard at an outsourcing conference.)

"So now that we've committed to outsourcing, how do we manage it? We don't need any more consulting about what's the best way to go about outsourcing, now we need some practical guidelines on how to keep from falling on our face!" (Comments heard at an outsourcing conference.)

"So now that we've committed to outsourcing, how do we manage it? We don't need any more consulting about what's the best way to go about outsourcing, now we need some practical guidelines on how to keep from falling on our face!" (Comments heard at an outsourcing conference.)