No matter the discipline, scientific research is an inherently collaborative process. From drafting a hypothesis, to collecting data, to revising the final version of a publication, scientific research demands the work of a great number of people working towards a final, common goal—how can one prove a hypothesis through quantifiable, logical means? What steps does a team need to take to ensure that a project is seen through to the end?
“Crowdsourcing,” one of the Internet’s most omniscient buzzwords, offers a huge opportunity for researchers around the world to collaborate. Initiatives like The Polymath Project demonstrate the potential for a number of unrelated people to share data, ideas, and concepts.
While emailing and instant messaging is indeed effective, sometimes you need to speak in real-time to produce the most accurate and relevant research exchanges. That is why free video conference services are essential for keeping an open venue for communication and ideas.
Whether it is a team of ten, or a team of 100, transparency and accuracy is absolutely essential in any research process. As teams are divided into particular tasks, staying on the same page can be difficult, and vital information can be confused in a sea of email chains and IM exchanges. With video conferencing, researchers can exchange information in real-time, ask for updates and progress reports, keep notes, and clarify any issues about the project that may come up.
Having such an easy way to communicate in real-time allows everyone to keep their own paper trail, instead of one or a few people tracking each stage of a process. This way, everyone is held accountable for their work and their overall contribution to the project at hand—call recording is also an invaluable resource for tracking progress.
Using a free video conference service is also a great way to maintain a reasonable budget for a given project. Travel time can cut into project budgets in a big way, especially when different researchers are in different parts of a country or in other parts of the world. Generally, video conference calling has made unnecessary travel, well, totally unnecessary. Travelling long, expensive distances for meetings that can be just as easily done through an efficient video calling service seems to be a redundant waste of time and money in this day and age.
With the Internet literally at your fingertips, why limit your project’s work to the immediate scope of people you are working with? Like the Polymath Project linked above, crowdsourcing research can reach people with valuable information that you may not immediately reach out to. For example, your project may catch the attention of an amateur astronomer, a bird watching hobbyist, or an industry insider—no matter what your project is concerned with, there’s likely someone out there with a vested interest in it.
Sometimes, inspiration and information come in unlikely places, and having a more open venue of collaboration can aid your project in a significant way. Free international calling goes a long way in keeping every party involved in a research project on the same page, no matter their role in the process.
The first step of any openly collaborative project is having an efficient method of communication. With FreeConference.com, clear, simple conference calling is just a click away. No login, no subscription, no hidden fees—just crystal-clear, reliable video calling. In an age where everything can be shared in an instant, it just makes sense to do it for free.
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