Mailing list

Pros:

• Minuted
• Detailed
• Scales (if you are following)

Cons:

• Difficult to grasp thread if using a poor client (common)
• Difficult for some people to write and respond to emails (common with the older generation and decision makers)
• Threads can just carry on and on …

Face to Face (F2F) meetings

Pros:

• High bandwidth communication
• Often highly effective
• Important for deeper social connections
• Natural

Cons:

• Often needs careful planning and agenda in order not to waste any time
• Often needs excellent chairing to avoid ‘rat holing’
• Needs to be minuted
• Very expensive in time and money
• Important people can be missing (may join with Teleconference)
• Teleconference bridges can sink a F2F meeting’s effectiveness (see pros listed above)

Video conferences

• Halo - recommended
• Polycom

Pros:

• Requires a very good Internet connection
• Expensive
• Convenient

Cons:

• People you need to talk to often do not have compatible equipment
• Some videoconferencing solutions are incredibly awkward
• Does not scale
• Complex

Teleconferences

Pros:

• Can make quick decisions
• Can mention sensitive items ‘off record’ to the group (quite hard WRT mailing list)
• Only reasonable backup for attending some F2F meetings, when lack of IRC back channel
• Can be quite good quality and cheap with Skype

Cons:

• Decisions can be made too hastily
• Does not scale (annoying delays)
• Sound quality issues
• “I take silence as agreement”
• Talking out of turn is awkward
• Can be expensive if no local dial-ins available
• No formal IP bridge for Skype for example
• Quite hard to find a time to suit everybody

IRC - Inter Relay Chat

Pros:

• Always on
• Often quick to get a response
• Scales
• Can export minutes to Web easily
• Helps to track F2F communication (non-native English speakers)

Cons:

• Only geeks use the medium :)
• It is tricky to setup properly
• Takes some experience to be used to the medium
• Takes even more time to understand minute syntax and robot commands