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Inspired by round-the-clock manufacturing, the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory endeavors to transform the production of software and other intangibles into a process of continuous development. While the concept of offshore software development is well established, few enterprises are currently able to develop the same code artifacts around the clock. We discuss the benefits of applying the 24Hour Knowledge Factory to software development. We also present a representative scenario highlighting the problems of asynchronous communication in current offshore software development practices. Further, we introduce the notion of composite persona as a potential collaboration model within the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory and explain its ability to mitigate problems arising from communicating across cultures, languages, and time-zones. Finally, we present a suite of new collaboration tools and techniques that are being developed specifically for use by composite personae in the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Inspired by the paradigm of round-the-clock manufacturing, the concept of 24-Hour Knowledge Factory endeavors to transform the production of intellectual property and intangibles into a process of continuous development (Gupta and Seshasai 2007). More specifically, we envision a 24-Hour Knowledge Factory as an enterprise composed of multiple sites that are evenly distributed around the globe. As the sun sets on one site, it rises on another; like an ongoing relay race chasing the sun, the day's work is handed off from the closing site to the opening site. The benefits of implementing a software development enterprise as a 24-Hour Knowledge Factory are several. We expect to realize gains from significant compression in development schedules, faster turnaround time for localization and customization of existing products, and bug fixes and critical security patches released with greater celerity. However, we also admit that the challenges of establishing a 24-Hour Knowledge Factory are significant. More specifically, we anticipate technical challenges arising from asynchronous communication, which will likely be exacerbated by cultural and linguistic differences. Non-technical challenges may grow from political and legal circumstances and from difficulties in managing and operating in such a nontraditional business environment. In this paper, we discuss the current state of offshored and globalized software development and some of the underlying difficulties. Next, we introduce the concept of the composite persona (CP). Finally, we discuss evolving collaboration technologies that support the concept of CPs in the context of hybrid offshoring.