Results Analysis

After a quiet last week of analyzing different media solutions I can now present the results.
None of the tested platforms is perfect, the strong things on the other hand usually lead to some weak points as well.
Therefore a combination of two supplementary platforms seems to be a good solution to fulfil all the needs of HESTIA.

Here you can find an overview of the different networks:
The detailed document is provided in a link below that table:

	LinkedIN	facebook	Xing	Moodle	twitter
Free Membership	+	++	+	+	++
Communication
Instant Messages	-	++	+	+	-
Chat/Groupconversation	-	++	+	++	-
VoIP	-	-	+	+	-
Messages	++	++	++	++	o
Events	++	++	++	o	-
Profiles/Personalization
Businessdata	++	+	++	-	-
Interests	+	++	+	+	o
Pictures	-	++	-	o	o
Video	-	++	-	-	o
Contactdetails	++	+	++	+	o
Groupfunction
closed groups possible	++	++	++	++	-
forum	++	+	++	++	-
Jobmarket in the group	++	o	o	+	-
See/Contact  other groupmembers	++	++	++	-	-

A more detailed analysis of the strength and weaknesses can be downloaded here.

New Tagcloud

To still keep the overview when more and more blog entries appear here I now added a tagcloud at the right corner of the blog.
The reader can now pick a field of interest and read all the blog posts to that topic.
There will be some main categories: 

• Thesis: all work I directly do for the written document
• Presentations: slides and entries about presentations I give about my thesis or the current state
• Surveys: any information (preparation, survey, results) regarding field research

This will help to give to blog a better structure and provide faster information.

First Logo

Here a very first logo. The idea is to bring Hestia, the greek godness of home and hearth/fire into it. This logo is made with illustrater. There will be another version which I'm gonna paint with an iPad.

Final Project Proposal

Today we have to hand in our final proposal and our project plan.
As there where only a few changes in the project proposal, the project plan has no a lot of new tasks which I couldn't see at the beginning of the project. And when you ask me in 4weeks, there will be again a lot of changes I guess. But it's good to split such a big project into small, handable tasks.

Here now again both documents:

ProjectProposal.pdf

ProjectPlan.pdf

Summary of first survey

n=35 

• 54% are in a leading/management position.
• 29% students who will become leaders later
  --> survey hit the target group

• 1/3 works daily, 1/3 weekly with virtual teams! Only 9% work never with virtual teams!

• But 53% have never received a special training how to deal with virtual teams!

• 80% are member in facebook. 77% in Xing* and/or 53% in LinkedIn (*as many participants of the survey   are from Germany Xing is better than expected)

• 56% visit a social networks several times a day, 30% at least once a week.

• 1/3 has a premium account (43% of the xing-members), which means they are willed to pay for additional service. That fact is very interesting in regard to the membership-model of HESTIA.


Summary:
The survey hit the target group, managers working with virtual teams. Most of them never received training in virtual teamwork. At least 80% are members in social networks and 86% visit the social network at least once per week.
Also, 1/3 is willing to pay for extra service. Quality is more important than free offers.

These facts build a solid stage for the foundation of HESTIA.


The second part of the survey deals with the idea/structure of a virtual club. Here the most important facts:

• 2/3 think that social networks can support communication with real friends

• 68% agree, that Virtual Worlds will never replace real meetings, but only 40% wants real HESTIA meetings

• The best benefits of HESTIA are “get in contact with experts of virtual teamwork” (90%), the international aspect, to have members from all over the world (83%) and receive advanced education/webinars about virtual teamwork (73%)

• Not important is to have a general influence in the area of virtual teamwork (like CCC in data protection)

• People expect from the club to get in contact with new business partners (59% agreed), support the handling with virtual teams (65%), better understand foreign cultures (71% agreed), build friendships (59%) and have better career opportunities (59%)

Summary HESTIA
The basic resonance of HESTIA is positive, there is need to discuss problems with other members and expert (through webinars)
Very important is the international aspect and get in contact with other cultures, it’s important to open the club e.g. for India, China, Japanese and Arabic countries.
A completely virtual club seems to be difficult, as most of the virtual contact happens with people you know in reality. 40% wants real meetings.


All results in detail


get all results here: Summary_HESTIA_Survey02_2011.pdf

Kick-Off today

Here you can find the presentation of today's kick-off for the thesis:
Current State Master Thesis

Survey public

The survey is now public and sent out to about 40 people working in project teams.
Here you can also attend at the survey: