Online Collaboration

I just finished my first "online group" project, and I would definately say it was more challenging that if it had been totally in a face to face classroom. We felt compelled to meet in person because we were short on time and this was completely new to all of us in addition to the technologies we were using that were new to us. Not only did we communicate via email and an online meeting, but we met in person for a few hours to discuss our project and then we also met in person when we were presenting online. I do not feel we could have put the project together in only a week without meeting face to face. I know that online collaboration is definately possible because of the work I've done with my online Neopets guild and because my father works from home and primarily collaborates with his team via online and phone meetings. I think that time plays a major factor. If we had 3 weeks to put our project together and were more familiar with the technology and subject matter perhaps we would not have felt compelled to meet in person. Also, there is a matter of trust. It is more difficult to depend on other group members and put your trust in them when you do not know eachother and havn't even conversed online much. Overall, I felt our project went ok (The Exemplar project) but was not as socially satisfying as I've found group work in the past.