I think you have well-captured the problem with collaboration-as-hype and collaboration-as-standard-business. I think we collaborate all the time … it’s the only way to get things done in a group/team situation. And yes, numerous vendors, of which Foldera is one, are seeking to bring better and more capable tools to the table to help in an increasingly virtual, increasingly fast-paced, increasingly non-face-to-face environment (such as your “real-life collaboration” story the last week, http://bizsystembuilder.com/blog/2006/07/06/real-life-collaboration/).

As a couple of additional data points that you may find helpful in your work and thinking:
1. before I joined Foldera, I put together a framework to help people think about what is needed from collaboration technology to aid team productivity. It is vendor neutral, and gives 7 thinking points. See http://www.shared-spaces.com/blog/2005/02/the_7_pillars_o.html.
2. Mike Gotta has a really nice post on the art of collaboration in business. I’ve printed this out so I can refer to it often. See http://mikeg.typepad.com/perceptions/2006/05/collaborative_c.html.

Finally, adoption is a big issue. I don’t think there’s a silver bullet, but I think that working closely with the intended users … explaining what’s in it for them, teaching them how to use the new tools until they are comfortable with them, and championing their use and value … are key aspects of the adoption challenge. As your work continues, I hope you will speak to some of the learning that you are doing and seeing in this area.

All the best for your consulting work at Cogent.

Kind regards,
Michael Sampson
Global VP of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Foldera, Inc.