A world, in which people no longer talk together,

is a cold world without feelings!!!

A warm welcome to the virtual campfire advent calendar!!!

This calendar is an idea of the cohort 07 at the FH JOANNEUM University of Applied Science in Austria. Every day one window will open that presents a special topic to the visitors.

The students are working together with different nations on a project with the title

"Virtual Teambuilding in heterogeneous and intercultural groups supported through computer-based synchronous and asynchronous Communication".

The aim of the project is to find out how to become acquainted with someone and gain trust in a person in the virtual world you have never actually met in real life.

More detailed description of the teambuilding project

The global world not only ties us into more "networks", the limitations of virtual communication also means that these new networks are all too often inferior to older "real" networks especially with regard to relationship management. Both businesses and the university community are aware of this problem. Of course personal contact stands at the centre also for us, but there are many reasons why it does not work so well in a globalized world: travel-costs, stress, the toll on the environment, all these are reasons that relationships deteriorate with growing geographical distance.

The scholarly literature and experts agree that it is infinitely important to have a good first contact with other persons for the relationship to prosper. Despite this recognition, the main focus up to this point has been on supporting teams once they are already established (groupware, workflow), but not so much in becoming established in the first place. The crucial process of getting to know one and trust one another has been neglected. One reason for this neglect may be that the problem is rooted in human relations and not in technology per se, and in the virtual world, technical solutions are often the first ones offered.

Getting to know one another and building trust are processes since humans existing in this world. These processes are often ritualized, spontaneous, difficult to plan and depend on the ability of the social skills of the individual. It requires that the individual is able to put him- or herself into the role of the opponent. In real life we are familiar with this process; we anticipate it and accept it. Teambuilding in real life relies on these elements.

In virtual teambuilding people transfer emotional relationships and expectations regarding conversation-levels into the virtual environment with the support of virtual communication-methods like Skype, MSN, Blogs and similar programs. In the case of this specific project, we want to see how these tools can best be used to build trusting relationships.

Because of globalisation we are living in a close world, very close to each other and we can overcome distance with the help of internet and communication technologies. So to survive today in the international sector we need to implement Social Skills 2.0 in our communication in order to successfully work with our clients.

In our project we will try to find out which activities are most suitable for building relationships and friendships beyond national borders.

These programs will be used in the course of the project:

Instant Messaging systems like Skype or MSN

Google Earth

Blog (virtual diary) http://moodle.act2win.com/blog/blogs/

Communication - and educational-platform Moodle https://bg.act2win.com/moodle

You tube

etc.... here, we expect further ideas from our students

The project includes 8 work-teams which consist of 4-5 Austrian students and 2 to 4 additional participants from other nations.

The participants have the task to plan trust-forming activities in the group with the help of the tools and programmes previously mentioned, and then they have to analyze strengths and weaknesses and experiences in the group and reflect this through feedback in the group.

The following three catch-phrases are at the centre of the project:

I will show you mine and you will show me yours

Stereotypes and prejudices

Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll

The point is not to stick to strict guidelines, but rather to creatively transfer the getting to know process into the virtual world with simple instruments - naturalistic, humane, empathetic, spontaneous and emotionally satisfying.

One example of teambuilding activity is the virtual advent calendar you can find under www.act2win.com/advent2007

Every group will fill one window of the calendar that presents one topic (examples could be children in poverty, Christmas in compare to other countries…)

This project will be an unforgettable experience for the participants!!!!

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. You can contact me under daniela@act2win.com Skype: danielarappitsch0503

or the project leader Peter Sereinigg: ps@act2win.com Skype: pser2000

We work and live in a world, in which we can talk again,

no matter what time it is or where we are at the moment.

This virtual campfire advent calendar is created in cooperation with 21 nations.