communicating EFFECTIVELY with others

The video below is a recording of the live stream which took place on Friday 24th April 2020 at 13:00 GMT.

On this page you will find the notes that were showcased on this stream

Contents

1) Introducing CMC

What is it?

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is, as you'd expect,is communication between two or more people that takes place via two or more networked computers (these days this also includes smartphones, tablets, games consoles etc).

There are two main types of CMC:

1) Synchronous - where everyone is online at the same time and chats together in "real time".

Examples of this would be seen using video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Skype or Google Hangouts

2) A-synchronous - where participants can leave messages for one another that others can respond to at a later time.

Examples of this would be messaging people via WhatsApp, posting on Facebook Walls and using Twitter.

How might it help?

Due to the Corona-virus (Covid-19) outbreak many people are working from home, making face for face collaboration impossible. This can be especially difficult for a team who still need to communicate effectively but, before the lock-down, relied heavily on face to face human interaction.


2) How to use CMC effectively

In our experience, those companies wanting to start using Computer Based Communications need to ensure that the following initiatives are all in place. Failure to do so will result in one or more of the causes of failure shown in the grey boxes below:

3) Picking the right tool

The tool(s) you pick will depend entirely on how you want to communicate with people and the kind of work that you need to do with them:

Practically speaking it is unlikely that you will find just one tool that does everything you need, so we would recommend that you familiarise yourself with multiple tools so you can find the one(s) that best work for you.

Here are some you may wish to consider:

Tools to use

4) Introducing Discord

Discord was originally launched as a free communications tool for gamers, however, its feature set makes it very useful for Small to Medium enterprises.

  • Group chats

  • Private 1-2-1 chats

  • Audio & video calls

  • File uploads

  • Screen Sharing

  • Can be run in a browser or installed onto your phone, tablet or computer.

Watch the video on the right to learn more...

4.1) Getting started with Discord

Discord provides a helpful guide for folks interested in getting started with the platform.

It also provides a wide variety of ready made templates that you can adapt and use for your own purposes.

Alternatively, there are many tutorial videos on YouTube that you can watch, such as the one on the right.

5) Summary

The purpose of the live-stream and these notes is not to tell you which CMC tool is best for you, but rather make you aware of the basic principles which you should seek to have in place in order to make their use a success.

The best thing to do now would be to try some of the tools we've mentioned in previous live-streams see which ones work best for you, and then go from there.