Communicating for Creative Success in Remote Collaborative Work

Abstract

This thesis investigated how technological communication tools contribute to creative success within the speci c domain of animation production. Research indicates that communication is one of the most important factors in producing successful collaborative work; speci cally, constant and open communication channels are the most conducive to creative collaboration. Communication habits in remote creative collaborative work have been little studied, but drawing upon established knowledge in co-located collaboration I hypothesized that teams with the highest volume of communication would produce the most successful creative output. In a three-year study of distributed student production teams, I compare quantitative communication modality and volume data with qualitative end-product success scores. My ndings indicate that more communication is not necessarily a positive factor. Further, an increased variety of communication modalities did not correlate with creative success. The results do indicate a preference among communication modalities for di erent types of communication: namely, asynchronous modalities are preferred for logistical communication and synchronous modalities are preferred for aesthetic communication. Collaboration using computer-mediated communication tools requires further study to determine best practices for creative work.