Workshop on Building Effective Virtual Organizations

I am involved in organizing  an NSF-sponsored  workshop, "Building Effective Virtual Originations" (BEVO) to be held in Washington, DC, on January 15 and 16. As we write on the Web page:

Virtual organizations are increasingly central to the science and engineering projects funded by the National Science Foundation. Indeed, if you are a researcher or educator, chances are that you if don't already lead or participate in at least one distributed team, you will soon.

Unfortunately, chances are also that you have never been told how to establish such teams, how to make them successful, or what technologies exist that can help them function effectively. You probably haven't had many opportunities to interact with others building, or just working in, virtual organizations, either.

Our goal at this workshop is to help address this knowledge gap. We invite you to take this opportunity to come and learn what is required to make virtual organizations successful, contribute your experiences and challenges to the discussions, and to establish new connections that will help you succeed in your research and education projects in the future.

The workshop is sponsored by the National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure, which has identified virtual organizations as a fundamental element of its infrastructure plans. Attendees will be responsible for their own travel and hotel. There is no fee to attend the workshop, but registration is required as space is limited.

We're still finalizing some of the speakers, but this is a unique opportunity both to learn about what it means to make virtual organizations work in practice, and to meet and talk with others engaged in the "virtual organization lifestyle" ...