Archive for the ‘Collaboration’ Category

Both Mashable and TechCrunch have coverage of Ning Apps, the suite of application tools which will soon be available to Ning network creators. Ning is a social networking platform which enables people to create their own social networks quickly and easily without having any particular technical knowledge (there are now 1 million Ning networks). Ning Apps is now in private beta but will soon deploy 90 new features which will add functionality such as wikis, the ability to sell merchandise, store files, host contests, buy tickets, etc. Different from Facebook and MySpace Apps, Ning Apps are geared toward network creators who can roll out the functionality to the entire network, vs. just for individuals. Here are just a few of the upcoming Ning Apps slated to be released at the end of May:

Collaboration
A Wiki (Wiki)
Huddle (Share documents and collaborate through whiteboards)
Box.net (Store files on your social network)
Google Docs
NewsShare by Slinkset (collaborative news sharing and discovery)
WordPress (Integrate a WordPress blog into the main page of your social network)
Reviews by Notches (Add review functionality to your network)
Classifieds by Adbhai (Add classifieds functionality to your network)
SearchMe (Searchme reviews) (visually search your network’s content or the web)
Flinkit by Sapplica (share interesting links)
Zoho Office Suite (six separate apps for Calendar, Docs, Mail, Planner, Contacts and Tasks Apps)
Clackpoint (Add voice conference functionality to your network)
VoxBox by Sapplica (Add polls and discussions to your network)

Communication
Ustream (Streaming of live events)
Twitter Tracker (Display a Twitter stream on the main page of your social network)
Tokbox (Video chat)
Mailchimp (Email campaigns)
Qik (Live streaming from mobile devices)
Zorap (Live multimedia chat and sharing)
YapLoud (lightweight browser-based chat)
Superchat by Sapplica (alternative chat environment)
Contact Us by LiveWired (add a simple contact form to your social network)
Internet Voicemail by Meternet (add voicemail to your network)

See more in the full Mashable post.

Matthew C. Clarke, Business Area Executive with Rocket Software, writes about Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage in this month’s issue of Boxes and Arrows. The article describes the CorVu company’s initiative to use wikis to capture the internal knowledge of its products and also to disseminate it to their customers. The company used two wikis to capture knowledge from two teams of employees - an R&D wiki and a Professional Services wiki, and then a third public, customer wiki to disseminate a sanitized version of that knowledge.

“Like many companies, CorVu has extensive knowledge of its own products and a desire to make that knowledge available to customers. A major block to achieving that desire has been a lack of people with the time to either record the internal knowledge or to fashion the knowledge into a customer-ready format. We needed to spread the load so that a broad range of developers, tech writers, professional service consultants and others could all contribute what time and knowledge they had to a shared goal. Our hope was that a process built around several Wiki sites would facilitate this collaborative approach.”

Dana Coffey at Crazeegeekchick.com has put together a guide to 27 Free Must-have Online Collaboration Tools. These Web-based apps make working with distributed team members easy and include whiteboard tools, mind-mapping applications, and tools for project management. The annotated guide is divided into the following categories:

• Whiteboard, Bullitin Board and Workspace Tools
• Project Management Tools
• Collaboration Tools - Intranet Style
• Social Networking and Information Sharing Tools
• Bug Tracking and Source Control Tools
• Customer Service Tools
• Web-Conferencing Tools
• Mind Mapping Tools

Earlier today Google officially launched Knol which had previously been in beta and invitation-only (see previous coverage). Knol is a collection of authoritative articles, written by a community of experts and a direct competitor to Wikipedia. Knols are written by individuals or teams who are credited for their contributions and can share in the revenue generated from the Google Adsense ads on their subject pages. Readers can rate, review, and comment on knols as well as suggest changes or additions to the content which is subject to the article authors’ approval.

Further coverage:

Knol: Google Takes on Wikipedia - ReadWriteWeb

Google’s Wikipedia rival, Knol, goes public - C|Net News

Google Launches Knol, The Monetizable Wikipedia - TechCrunch

Web conferencing applications which enable a presenter to host a Webinar or meeting with live video and audio, text chat, whiteboards, shared files, and even desktop sharing offer countless opportunities for collaboration, online training, and remote assistance. While many of these sophisticated programs are costly, a new crop of free Web conferencing applications has emerged which offer amazing alternatives to traditional online meeting programs such as WebEx and GoToMeeting.

Librarians could use these free applications for holding office hours, reference consultations, library instruction, hosting their own Webinars, conducting live interviews, or collaborating with remote team members on projects.

VRoom by Elluminate is “three for free Web conferencing”. Elluminate lets users sign up for their own virtual meeting room (vRoom) in which they can hold Web conferences with live Webcam, two-way audio, application sharing, IM chat, whiteboard, and file transfer with up to 3 simultaneous users.

Yugma is a Web conferencing application which allows a presenter to share their desktop with conference attendees in order to demonstrate, share, or collaborate on projects. The free, personal version of Yugma enables conferencing with up to 10 people along with an IM chat interface within sessions. Professional accounts can record sessions, share files, change presenters, and share mouse and keyboard controls. The Skype edition integrates with the VOIP application and includes the users’ Skype contact list.

WiZiQ is a completely Web-based education platform which lets teachers present to up to 25 students from within a virtual classroom through live video, audio, and text chat. WiZiQ allows content sharing, provides a whiteboard and records sessions. They have a module which integrates with the Moodle LMS.

Dimdim is a free, open source live meeting software which offers audio and video conferencing and lets hosts share their desktop with attendees. This application requires no download or installation for meeting participants and can be used with up to 20 people with the free version. Dimdim offers whiteboards and both public and private chat options.

PalBee enables members to conduct video conferencing sessions complete with whiteboards, text chat interface, file sharing capabilities, and free recording of sessions. Presenters can hold unlimited sessions with up to five people for up to one hour, and also can pre-record sessions and then share them

Vyew is a fully Web-based conferencing and collaboration application which features white boards, audio and video support, and an integrated chat client. Hosts can share their desktops, take screenshots, conduct conference calls with up to 150 others, and hold conference sessions with up to 20 participants with the free version.

Trent Batson, Ph.D. at Campus Technology discusses the types of Web 2.0 collaborative technologies his research team employed throughout the life cycle of their project in Research Collaboration in the Ephemera of Web 2.0.

“What technology do researchers use at different phases of the project? With the new options available now and, it seems, each month, we consider all the possibilities. Part of research now is not just the research, but keeping abreast of new collaboration technologies. We all need to be ethnographers.”

From organizers and hosted storage spaces to free online video conferencing, Web Worker Daily comes up with 12 Top, Free Ways to Collaborate Online.

1. FolderShare
2. Google Calendar
3. Plaxo
4. Numerous remote control software applications
5. Yugma
6. Yuguu
7. Gubb
8. Zoho Planner
9. XDrive
10. Sightspeed
11. ooVoo
12. Pinger

Both Tame the Web and Web Worker Daily have coverage of the new Google Apps Team Edition which enables groups of students or co-workers to share and collaborate using:

• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Google Talk
• Google Start Page

With team edition, collaborators can:

• Work on the same document together, instead of sorting out changes in attachments
• Share documents and calendars securely with your co-workers/classmates with a click
• Arrange meetings, set schedules, and publish event information.
• Instant message and make PC-to-PC voice calls for free.
• Access it all from any computer, and even from mobile phones
• Find others from your organization who are using Team Edition and invite them to share with you