Collaboration is a very good thing. It allows us to achieve more than we would otherwise be able. I have recently discovered some good web-based collaboration tools that I would like to share with you.
First, and most obviously, is a blog such as this one. It is quite easy to set one up and maintain it. Google Blogger is the easiest I have found, but I'm sure there are others that work quite well.
Other Google tools which facilitate collaboration are Google Calendar (it's how I produce the Overlook Estates calendar at the Overlook Estates web site), and Google Groups. You can create many calendars and many groups. I have 4 calendars that I maintain: Personal, Overlook Estates, Family (where all members of the family can keep abreast of events and family business) and one for stock market events that I am tracking. Calendars can be shared with whomever you send an invitation to, or they can be kept private. And they can be posted on web sites (e.g. Overlook Estates) even though they are maitained at Google.
A Google calendar can set up repeating events, and it can send alerts, either by email or as a pop-up on your screen. They also allow you to invite participants for an event.
Groups are a good way to collaborate with a team. Jill has set up a Google Group for the Overlook Estates Social Committee, and I have set up a group for the family (it dovetails nicely with the family calendar). Again, group membership is by invitation, so you can keep viewing and posting restricted to only those who "need to know." Jill uses the Social Committee group to hold "virtual" discussions for the committee members, and I use the family group for the same purpose.
Perhaps you have noticed on some of the web sites you visit, little links entitled Digg This! or Save to del.icio.us or Share on Facebook. These are colloboration tools which I am not currently using (I tried to use del.icio.us but could not get the Internet Exporer plug in to install, so I gave up on it). I may revist them in the future. If anyone has experience with Digg This! or del.icio.us I would love to hear about it.
I'm not going to get into a My Space or Facebook social-networking discussion. I don't use them. They seem more like time-wasting, vanity site distractions, than usable collaboration tools. But, I suppose, my age provides my bias.
Finally, I want to mention a new web-based tool from Microsoft. It's called Office Live Workspace, and it allows you create and share workspaces with work groups, family members, club members, or whomever you would like to share documents with. It is currently in beta, but seems quite robust and reliable. Like Google Calendars and Groups, you can set up as many Workspaces as you want to manage. I have created one for (you guessed it) the family, one for a team I am collaborting with on a book I am writing, one for travel, and one catch-all personal workspace.
There are several very nice features about the workspaces, aside from the tremendously valuable one of being able to share documents. There are workspace templates (the one for Travel, for example, comes already "loaded" with a Personal Data Form and a Business Trip Itinerary (both are MS Word documents), a Packing List and a Travel Checklist (both are list structures much like MS Outlook Tasks, which can be itemized, categorized, and checked off as the tasks are completed).
Other templates are:
First, and most obviously, is a blog such as this one. It is quite easy to set one up and maintain it. Google Blogger is the easiest I have found, but I'm sure there are others that work quite well.
Other Google tools which facilitate collaboration are Google Calendar (it's how I produce the Overlook Estates calendar at the Overlook Estates web site), and Google Groups. You can create many calendars and many groups. I have 4 calendars that I maintain: Personal, Overlook Estates, Family (where all members of the family can keep abreast of events and family business) and one for stock market events that I am tracking. Calendars can be shared with whomever you send an invitation to, or they can be kept private. And they can be posted on web sites (e.g. Overlook Estates) even though they are maitained at Google.
A Google calendar can set up repeating events, and it can send alerts, either by email or as a pop-up on your screen. They also allow you to invite participants for an event.
Groups are a good way to collaborate with a team. Jill has set up a Google Group for the Overlook Estates Social Committee, and I have set up a group for the family (it dovetails nicely with the family calendar). Again, group membership is by invitation, so you can keep viewing and posting restricted to only those who "need to know." Jill uses the Social Committee group to hold "virtual" discussions for the committee members, and I use the family group for the same purpose.
Perhaps you have noticed on some of the web sites you visit, little links entitled Digg This! or Save to del.icio.us or Share on Facebook. These are colloboration tools which I am not currently using (I tried to use del.icio.us but could not get the Internet Exporer plug in to install, so I gave up on it). I may revist them in the future. If anyone has experience with Digg This! or del.icio.us I would love to hear about it.
I'm not going to get into a My Space or Facebook social-networking discussion. I don't use them. They seem more like time-wasting, vanity site distractions, than usable collaboration tools. But, I suppose, my age provides my bias.
Finally, I want to mention a new web-based tool from Microsoft. It's called Office Live Workspace, and it allows you create and share workspaces with work groups, family members, club members, or whomever you would like to share documents with. It is currently in beta, but seems quite robust and reliable. Like Google Calendars and Groups, you can set up as many Workspaces as you want to manage. I have created one for (you guessed it) the family, one for a team I am collaborting with on a book I am writing, one for travel, and one catch-all personal workspace.
There are several very nice features about the workspaces, aside from the tremendously valuable one of being able to share documents. There are workspace templates (the one for Travel, for example, comes already "loaded" with a Personal Data Form and a Business Trip Itinerary (both are MS Word documents), a Packing List and a Travel Checklist (both are list structures much like MS Outlook Tasks, which can be itemized, categorized, and checked off as the tasks are completed).
Other templates are:
- Class (with class notes, contact list, dates, essay outline and syllabus)
- Essay (with term paper outline, thesis template, and milestone list)
- Event (with invitation, flyer, agenda, attendee list, and to-do list)
- Household (contact list, grocery list, and to-do list)
- Job search (interview schedule, preparation notes, cover letter, and resume)
- Meeting (meeting notes, minutes archive, attendee list and to-do list)
- Project (schedule, participant list, presentation template, and to-do-list)
- School (semester schedule, contact list, and to-do list)
- Sports team (team roster, schedule, snack schedule) to share with parents, team members and fans
Each workspace allows you to create and maintain Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Outlook Tasks, Outlook Events (for your calendar) Outlook Notes and generic lists (like the travel cheklists above).
The really cool thing about the Office Live Workspaces, though, is that (with an Office plug-in) you can work with Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and Powerpoint presentations locally, and when you click "Save" they get saved to your online workspace transparently! It's as if you have expanded your hard-drive to include a virtual drive that your collaborators have access to!
It is getting much easier to collaborate and I can't wait to see what the next new thing will be. If any of you have collaboration tips, please share them with us. We will all be much more organized and efficient in this information overload age we live in.
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