Abstract:
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Remote collaboration is becoming more common, especially in business. However, some academic, small business, and nonprofit workers, especially in non-technical disciplines, may be uninitiated to collaborating remotely. Such clients may not understand how remote collaboration works or lack the hardware or software to support remote collaboration. To coin a statistical phrase, the assumptions of statistical consultancy do not include that all clients are mature remote collaborators. How do research and statistical consultants respectfully and successfully initiate the uninitiated to remote statistical collaboration? To serve clients responsibly, consultants may need to teach clients to be effective remote collaborators or to devise effective remote collaboration systems that are consistent with the client's knowledge and technology capacity. This paper comprises a description of unexpected obstacles to remote collaboration, such as clients who don't know how to use online file sharing or video conferencing services or who are unable to operate their computer's webcam. Examples of remote collaboration systems that were devised to be compatible with the clients' knowledge and technology capacities will be described.
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