Virtual Engineering Teams: Strategy and Implementation
               Lars Line and Jose Gonzalez
             Agder College, Grimstad Norway

SUMMARY: A medium-sized and distributed (16 regional offices)
Norwegian engineering company (ASPLAN-VIAK) has started a
transformation to exploit the potential of digital information and
communication technology for organising knowledge work in new
modes. The effort does not only challenge technology, but also
organisational systems and social constructs. The paper discusses a
philosophical, technological and social context for a full-scale
experiment, and also summarises some experiences. The study indicates
that virtual teams are becoming an interesting and viable way of
organising knowledge work. The author believes that virtual teams will
be a common and natural organisational form for companies who wants to
be part of the open information society.

Lars Line Biography
Associate Professor at Agder College, Faculty of Engineering,
Department of Information and Communication Technology.  Director of
Studies, Master programme in ICT.  Research Interests: Coordination
Technology/Groupware and Internet Technology, Virtual Organisations

Jose J Gonzalez Biography 
Jose J Gonzalez is professor of System Dynamics at Agder University
College, Grimstad, Norway and Senior Consultant at Powersim
Corporation, US and Norway.  As a professor, Jose has published over
90 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings and held
lectures and workshops at conferences and universities world-wide. He
has two Ph.D.'s in modeling and simulation of physical and biophysical
systems.  Jose J Gonzalez is a co-founder of Powersim and has worked
as a consultant since the company was founded in 1988. Powersim
Corporation has headquarters in Reston, VA, and offices in San
Francisco, CA, and Bergen, Norway (see www.powersim.com).  Jose has
consulted with corporations in Norway, Sweden, Germany, UK and US on
scenario planning and organizational learning. He has conducted
systems thinking and computer simulation seminars to corporations and
government agencies in Europe.