15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration

Six Revisions just posted on 15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration  About half these products are old hat to me, and about half are new.  I note six new ones below...

Right now the free form tools such as Stixy are intruiging me (Stixy is new to me) as I am looking to integrate web collaboration into thinklet processes.  Perhaps Stixy gives me enough flexibility to do so.

Project2Manage and ProjectPier look at first glance just like the other 20 web project products I know about.  P2M seems to be standard SAAS and PP seems to be opensource roll your own, perhaps useful as a project centric content management environment.

Dabbleboard is new to me, but I remain unconvinced free form whiteboarding tools (other than ConceptShare) are much more than toys.  Such a tool requires a very tight thinklet to provide any value.  Twiddla integrates text chat, but seems to be in the same camp.

Spicebird seems to be a project centric team portal environment.  Again, there are already a dozen of these -what makes Spicebird better?

When you go to this post, check out the comments area.  Readers have suggested dozens of additional tools - most of them are new to me.  Do you find any of them to be gems?
 

Comments

[Zoaib Mirza]

I can speak for Vyew. For our group project we used it and I think it was better than Dim Dim which we used for our previous group meeting. Apart from chatting, sharing desktop and eboard, we were able to have smooth video conferencing.

[Rick Teachers Assistant]

I briefly read thru these tools to see what they were all about. Considering that most of them are open source (free) to use, I would hope that some of you wuld try it out.

Like for this class, it is good time to experiment with the tools.

I would like to hear from you on what tools you have experience with and what was your overall opinion?

Tell me what you used it for and how did it work?

[Ross McDonald]

As was suggested, where do you start in evaluating all these products? As you more through a list of products, the list keeps growing. To me, the criteria for each of these products is how seamlessly the product fits in with you current work environment and habits. Of the product list, I use Skype the most frequently in my personal life. The availability of product that simplifies the process of making VoIP calls has enabled me to fit Skype into my everyday processes. The same simplicity needs to be demonstrated by each of these products to ensure their success.

[Konrad Klimek]

I have actually used Dabbleboard and it was very easy to use. Its an online whiteboard that is fun to use. They recently added new toolkits and redesigned a few things to make it more user friendly.
Toolkits they just added:
Shapes (that aren’t auto-detected)
Networking
User Interface
Electrical Engineering
Floorplan
Comics
Sports

Here is a blog more about Dabbleboard http://blog.dabbleboard.com/

[Harsh]

I have used Collabtrak with some success. I would recommend it . There is a Free and Pro version, both of which are supported and hosted by the Collabtrak team. It is light weight and enables the creation of multiple projects as well as project notes within. It also has multi-user functionality, file handling and a chat client.

[Jim Gross]

The problem with most of these tools are they are opensource/freeware and most companies do not allow them on their network. I know I would not be in good standing with my network team if I were to download one of these products(although I did download skype for the class and it is quite useful) and attempted to use them in an everyday corporate work setting. Throughtout this term I always questioned security of the products we examined. My company is not a large powerhouse by any means, however, we do take security seriously, in my 16 years of IT experience I have seldomly seen a corporation utilize freeware products of this nature in a regular business setting, maybe I am just not in tune with tools of this nature, or is it perhaps tools of this degree are not really intended for corporate America or large companies.

Outside of a professional setting, my lifestyle habits do not dictate the need for these tools, so would some one please provide real life examples on how they used these tools or like tools (other than skype ot google docs) to help them accomplish either a critical business task or something personal?

Bottom line for me and my company, freeware/opensource tools are scary for any critical business need - agree/disagree?

[Alla Koulakova]

I have a team project in my other class this quarter for which one of our team members suggested to use Wetpaint. At the end of the first week only two of five members have actually posted their documents and maintained a few blogs. I was one of these two people only because I wanted to explore and evaluate the tools to see how useful it may be for a project. I’d disagree with the author of the Six Revisions post that this is an “excellent platform” to generate content, share documents, blogging, etc. Though it may be a fairly simple tool to use, I find Wetpaint a poorly designed platform for any team project. It was hard to track who posted what and when, and you had to enter your login credentials several times before accessing the right page. Creating a project plan and maintaining To Do list was also a disappointing experience with Wetpaint.

[Scott]

In addition to the security concerns that Jim mentioned it also seems reasonable to consider how long these products will be available. Most businesses won't consider them not only because of the security risks involved, but also because they lack any type of support or maintenance contract that most of us in I.T. get accustomed to. It's great that such a large number of free tools have recently become available, but when you are getting ready to roll out a long term project it might be a good idea to consider any type of support in the event you do get backed into a corner with the software.

[Alla Koulakova]

Here is the article to support Jim's point. Not the most recent material, but for the most part still holds true. http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/the-information-leak-in-the-online-collaboration-sink/

[Suruchi]

I tried BaseCamp & CentralDesktop but it did not work for our firm. From past few months we have been using DeskAway & things are working for us & they have been providing a great service. I will definitely recommend DeskAway.

http://www.deskaway.com

[Josh]

Those are very good tools, however, in many cases those platforms are used just to allow the team to review the same document together in real-time and "be on the same page".
The recently launched free site http://www.showdocument.com does exactly that, quickly show documents to friends and colleagues.
It allows co-browsing on any document, user uploads a document and invites friends to view it with him live
All the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc.

[Kolawole Olatunbosun]

I agree these are all great tools but the ones that arouse my interest most are those web based open source collaboration tools. It's amazing to know the number of the open software that is out there. I found more on the web site below http://infogoal.com/pmc/pmcswr.htm

[Syed Ahmer Zaidi]

Kola - Thanks for the great link.

I am firm believer in open source web applications. I think it is an untapped resource for greatness, if companies were to buy into the idea. What's to buy? It's mostly FREE!

Our project group used an open source project management web application, PHProjekt, in order to store file and assign tasks to one another. Open source does have its limitations but the beauty is that it can always be customized with even the most basic understanding and programming skill in whatever web development language.

Companies spend thousands and millions of dollar developing house grown applications. They should save there money and customize an open source application to there needs. Enhance the wheel, don't reinvent it.

[Matt Sorin]

While my company is a Microsoft shop (using SharePoint and MS Project) I use the 37 signals products when I am doing things outside of my “official” work duties. But to be honest as noted above there are so many items out there that do much what I need them to do. I have pretty much stopped looking at new technologies for the time being until I get a recommendation from a friend about something that I just have to try. (maybe we can use Linkedin for that?)A number of these items provide some cool things but the one that I am most interested in is bubbl.us. I was diagnosed with learning disabilities when I was in second grade. I have been using a variety of study techniques since them to help me overcome these challenges. I see significant opportunities via collaborative mind mapping. As a student I will be able to work with my teacher/tutors to review my notes and ensure that I properly understand the key points of the lecture. This is most likely going to be most beneficial for younger students. From second grade through high school graduation I went to a tutor once a week. During that week, we would review key subjects. With the use of collaborative mind mapping I can see a scenario where I would not have to wait a full week, but rather work in a more real-time environment to help ensure that I stay fully up to speed as to the happenings within the class. While I don’t necessary see a real benefit in my respective work space, I can see significant advantages in the educational arena.

[Rajeev Kumar]

Jim, I agree with your comments of freeware/open source tools. In a corporate setting, it is difficult to introduce freeware as a tool for the enterprise. I have however seen some of these tools make their way in as a "one off" functional need.
I however think that these tools can be very helpful and need to get introduced by IT folks like all of us... Sometimes the business community is unaware that such tools exist and it is up to IT to demonstrate their usefulness. If a freeware product becomes useful enough in a corporate setting, it eventually can be adopted (sometimes it's sold as an appliance behind the firewall) For example, I've seen Google docs and Skype being used in my organization for collaboration (even though Skype is blocked!)

[Nimmy Kurian]

I did try out some of the tools mentioned as part of our team project and here is my $0.02

1) Stixy - wasn't too good. It seems focussed more on bulletin board functionality and had limited functionalities otherwise

2) Thinkature - Looks good on the surface and is feature rich. But it seems to suffer from connection issues and can make working with it quite frustrating. Hopefully this is an initial bug and will get sorted out soon.

3)Dabbleboard - nice feature set but doesn't integrate any form of chat

4) Vyew - seems like a nice slick whiteboarding tool especially for team collaboration purposes. Supports voice,text and video collaboration

5)Twiddla -Another whiteboarding tool which is very good for collaboration. The feature list is a lot like Vyew but one important feature that Vyew had but Twiddla didn't
was the ability to specify access control .

There is a lot of truth to Danny's comment about whiteboard/modeling tools. Most of them are still immature and there is much room for improvement in this area.

[Jay Leffue]

I'm in the group with Nimmy and we pretty much agree as we now have had a chance to get our hands dirty with these applications. Many/most are deffinetly toys and that was my initial response to many of them. I think we are in agreement however, that Vyew is the best package we have yet to see. There will be a full write up in our wiki (1000 Words), but we were able to use Vyew quite well for our first Use Case. The audio quality is very good, and it allows for seperate priveledges per participant, it tracks where everyone's mouse is. Its really quite nice.

We also saw however that Autodesk is creating a virtual whiteboard, but it is still in development. They are a super high profile company making some of the best stuff out there for engineers and such so I have extremely high hopes for their product when it is finished. Link: http://draw.labs.autodesk.com/ADDraw/draw.html

[Konrad Klimek]

I have always liked Google Docs. It is a very useful tool and easy accessible especially if you have a gmail account and use it frequently. Google Docs has been a great collaboration tool for the team project. We have shared documents quickly and each member has been able to edit and input his/her ideas. It very useful since the work is stored online and any additions can be added or if errors have been made deleted anywhere with internet connections. It is very easy to use and is an excellent tool in sharing ideas.

[Harsh Tanna]

I am loving project pier at the moment, specially with the Zura-Blue basecamp like skin… its easy to setup, does all the things with files, messages and tasks that i need and there is a PLUG IN for outlook calendars

[Gina D]

While I appreciate variety and having the option to make a choice, at some point the available resources can get overwhelming! I hear all these different products being offered up but the reality of many people's situations is they just want ONE that WORKS WELL and CONSISTENTLY. :) Like Jim states above, outside of work are these tools being utilized? HOw and why are people using these tools - a large list with the pros, cons and purpose or general functionalities of each product would be great. In agreement and along the lines of what Matt states, I wonder how many people - after finding a product they like- actually go searching for other solutions. At what point are work places doing a reevaluation of tools they use? At my place of work Microsoft rules, largely because of the large comfort factor, compatable and expandable functionalities and familiarity. When it comes to communication across distance, products like webx and gotoAssist with phone communication, have been hugely well received by the customers we support and no whiteboard type tool is going to compare with that kind of tandem communication and visual type learning\collaboration. I agree with Ahmer, enhance the wheel - don't reinvent what already works well. With all the additional communication and community building possible today, there is still that large capitalistic pull in the United States to start from scratch and work from that individualistic veiwpoint. There will be a great social revolution and extreme progress when\if the concept of interdependence takes the mainstream focus again. Who knows, maybe that time is sooner than what could be previously imagined given the optimistic and groupthink type of leadership that will be moving into the white house soon.

[Khuram Jabbar]

Stixy's GUI(Graphical User Interface) makes it unique and interesting. I like the sticky note affect, where one can drag icons on the screen, prioritize tasks using colors(stands out). It is very easy to use. But it does not allow preparation of presentations, spreadsheets, databases online like the Google Docs.

[Khuram Jabbar]

I agree with Syed Ahmer Zaidi;
"We should enhance the product and not reinvent it" because there are tons of products out in the market. Each company has specific requirements. Can one product satisfy all? I highly doubt that. going through the 15 FREE products, each one displaying atleast one distinct feature; if all combined into one for Company A, there will still be a different requirement for Company B.

[Khuram Jabbar]

I downloaded Skype last year for International Calling but other than that I did not find it very different from Yahoo or Msn Messengers. Though we are using Skype this quarter for our team project meetings and feel it as an extra software because I have been using Yahoo messenger for last 8 years to communicate with family members, friends, colleages, and class mates. I don't see much difference between Skype and Yahoo Messenger.
I think Google Docs is a great tool, because we recently had new computers in our office and we did not have Microfost Office Installed in the machines. We had deadlines for projects. Google Docs was a lifesaver. We used Online applications, saved them online, shared those docs with clients for changes and updates.

[Khuram Jabbar]

I have never used Project2Manage Application and most likely will not use it unless I change my field to Project Management. As a free application, I believe it satisfies all requirements of a project manager. such as
1. Helps keep projects organized
2. Assign multiple levels of permission to
different clients & users
3. Manage your projects from anywhere
4. Manage unlimited projects
5. Post Messages to keep everyone up to date
6. Manage Tasks with To-Do Lists
7. Create Milestones to stay on task
Another good option is the Spot2Jot(somewhat like Google Docs) where documents and be created, edited and access from anywhere.
The only problem a company may experience is the security.

[Khurram Jabbar]

I have not used Spicebird but I browsed on the website,watched demo and read many blogs over it. I did not find anything extraordinary may be it is still in its early stages.
Couple of options I found interesting were the Email text detecting time and date and giving an option to add the address, date, time of the sender. Another good one was the clocks displaying timezones.