Resumen
The present article reports on the creation and application of a place-based virtual collaboration environment for distributed analysis and collaborative planning in intelligence and defence. The virtual office has been a dream for decades. Computer supported collaborative environments provides services such as integrated desk-top conferencing, shared applications, and workflow management. Creating a productive collaborative environment requires a delicate balance of technology, knowledge, and trust. Organizations deploying collaboration environments learn quickly that success depends on addressing issues around infrastructure, scalability; usability and security; as well as organizational resistance to change and sharing. Indeed, while technical challenges such as communications bandwidth and human attention limitations remain, solutions such as the use of multicasting for efficient audio and videoconferencing or presence/awareness services are rapidly forthcoming. Even enterprises that heed these hard-earned lessons still face the limits of current technology and knowledge not to mention bastions of human resistance to change.