Current trends and developments, future requirements, and predictions for computer mediated communications and e-collaboration

This chapter provides a revision and update to the authors' original 2012 research that discussed fifteen semi-structured interviews carried out with international industry experts and thought leaders within the computer mediated communications and e-collaboration field. The original interviews focused on 5, 10, and 15-year time frames, and sought to elicit predictions on the components and services of future platforms, as well as their likely impact on business processes and value chains. Affinity Diagramming/KJ Analysis techniques on the original interview transcripts exposed a number of key tenets that are now revisited, discussed in a current context, revised and updated in this chapter. Following a similar structure to the 2012 paper, the authors discuss the origins of the field, main providers and platforms, related software development technologies, W3C standards, video conferencing, telepresence, cloud computing and Enterprise 2.0. The authors provide a synopsis of the original interviews and have updated theirconclusions and findings in light of most recent research and developments. With reference to future requirements, they have also updated their discussions on a next generation architecture proposal/model with additional insights from the authors' research work and that of others in the computer mediated communication and e-collaboration field.