Virtualisation and online collaboration

I’ve lately been thinking about “virtualisation” and online collaboration.

There are two strands of this that I would particularly be interested in exploring further.

The first one is virtual/online workshops as a way to reduce our env footprint and best practices to make these really effective. I do not think only skypeing in or such, but also other ways to foster discussions while living and working in different timezones. Would love to gather ideas for new ways to approach these issues if there is interest.

The other one is related to a need I felt mostly last year while teaching global environmental history: the lack of global EH source books to be used in teaching providing, at the very minimum, English translations of sources. Originally I thought this should become an actual book, but over the last couple of years I became convinced that instead an open source online project would be more apt both to involve collaborators and reach the right audience. I believe a combination of tools like Scripto and CommentPress would work to set up the technical infrastructure, but I definitely would like to hear your ideas.