A crowd draws a crowd but you need to be fit too. Distinguished Physicist Albert Laszlo Barabasi in his excellent book "Linked - the New Science of Networks" lets us into the secret of how any kind of network grows.

Yesterday Google announced a new premier edition of its Google Apps online collaboration suite, combining GMail, Google Talk, Calendar. Page Creator, Startpage, Google Docs and Spreadsheets under a hosted subscription service. Robin Good offers an excellent review of the components, pricing and the support package.

The best team is Me. It might sound like heresy but sometimes the most effective way to produce something is not through collaboration but by just doing it yourself.

Create a single frame video conference using a peopleclock to help participants concentrate and engage better.

The current focus on ‘social networking’ might make us think we should spend all our efforts warming up distant relationships and creating new ones. However it would be a big mistake if we neglected the relationships we already have. We can learn a lot about relationship ecosystems from Jim Henson the inventor of the Muppets.

James Thornton in “You Have Three Brains” reports on research that we each have, not one but, three brains nested within our skulls – a lizard brain, a dog brain, and a human brain. This got me thinking – if teams are really living systems then they might have 3 brains too?

One of the biggest problems in teams, communities and networks, whether co-located or virtual, is freeriding (aka freeloading or lurking or loafing) where certain team members do not pull their weight. Here are 5 things you can do about it.

Why do I always have to take the garbage out : new social network research may explain why some team tasks just never get done.

For those of us still working in offices New Scientist Magazine suggests a number of excellent ways to reduce your workplace stress. Full of good practical ideas plus some less practical ones such as visiting an oxygen bar, relaxing by sniffing your colleague’s armpits and strolling across to the animal therapy centre.

Isaac Asimov, forecasted the coming age of Robots and developed the famous Three Laws of Robotics. Asimov’s laws can be easily adapted to teams to determine if your team is Performing or Inverted (a team where the individual, team and other member priorities have got muddled).