I have been intensively searching for web-based collaborative software, of which there are way too many choices to easily analyze IMHO, and I came across this article which mentions our very own Alexander: http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog/2009/03/23/ready-to-go-project-management-with-teamwork/ . I hope to post a bit more about this type of software, but right now my brain and schedule are on overload.

--Ken

Well, I cataloged the sites that I initially decided to try out (for free) and here is the list:

[Basecamp]

[Hiveminder]

[Huddle]

[Manymoon]

[Nexo]

[Ning]

[OfficeLive]

[OfficeZilla]

[OnePlace]

[Shutterfly Share]

[Smartsheet]

[Task2Gather]

[Teamwork Project Manager]

[Wetpaint]

[Zoho]

Recent activities at work and at home have caused me to quest for a collaborative type of software in a big way. E-mail may be a known tool, but it just does not seem to be useful for getting everybody "on the same page", especially when the page keeps changing. I will lay out my criteria in a later post, but I would appreciate any comments if anybody has used any of these programs in conjunction with others.

Also, when time permits, I will posat my experiences with trying to use an iPod Touch as a PDA. Its not quite there yet, but I am hoping that things will be a bit better with OS 3.0.

--Ken

Hi Ken,

I don't know if the world is small but it does run in circles; I first got in touch with David Tebbutt after registering for Brainstorm, a program I learnt about in this here forum (or rather its predecessor). I've been an avid reader of his and asked for his advice when looking for an online project management tool.

There's a multitude of offerings of course many of them very similar to each other; ultimately it may be a bet, as you can't be sure which will be around next year. That's one reason that I didn't want to go for a free option. In the past I had used the free Mayetic Village which is now no longer offered, even though it was backed by a fairly big player.

One thing you need to get clear right from the start (there's obviously more but this was critical for me) is the social networking aspect; tools like huddle.net --an excellent offering by the way- require each user to register for a separate account; they then provide each a workspace which they can share in groups. 'Classic' project-oriented tools like Teamwork PM allow one to have one account and directly build a list of users without their own involvement (this is what we wanted). With the above in mind, available tools are immediately split into two major groups.

There's more of course; do you want something to install in your own server or a hosted solution? (The answer is not necessarily straightforward). Without wanting to add too much to your list, here's a couple of rather different offerings:

http://www.activecollab.com/
http://www.wrike.com/
http://www.projectcompanion.com/index_enu.asp (there is also a software application)

and a few short reviews:
http://www.appvita.com/2009/04/10/deskaway-put-your-projects-on-cruise-control/
http://www.appvita.com/2009/04/17/whodoes-teamwork-made-easy-and-attractive/
http://www.appvita.com/2009/04/03/producteev-work-collaboratively-online/
http://www.appvita.com/2009/04/17/liquid-planner-flexible-project-planning/

Hi Alexander,

Well, lately I feel as though I have been running around in circles, so your description is appropriate. You are correct that many of the offering look alike (not unlike so many iPhone applications), and I am not a big fan of having to make people open accounts to collaborate. Right now, I feel like am at the beginning of a paradigm shift away from e-mail being the center of business communications, so I am just getting my feet wet with this whole new category of software. Unfortunately, this awareness is happening right while I am in the middle of a work and home project that seem like they could benefit from more coordinated communication.

At work, we have Shaepoint, and it is slowly being rolled out as we update our software. But, outside of work, I am free to experiment. At this point I am not interested in a server-based application, although I am aware of the limits of working "in the cloud". I looked briefly at Smartsheet last night ,and like that it is based on a spreadsheet/task manager type of model. I guess there is no substitution for trying, so I am going to try and prioritize these candidates. Then, as time permits, I will try and sample their offerings. Thansk again for the suggestions.

--Ken

Ken wrote:

Right now, I feel like am at the beginning of a paradigm
shift away from e-mail being the center of business communications, so I am just
getting my feet wet with this whole new category of software.

Yes, I know what you mean; I am in a similar situation --though other than 'away from e-mail' I have no idea where I'm going to...

I suggest you take alook at these to post by David Tebbutt below, which play on the same theme:

Putting email in its place
http://teblog.typepad.com/david_tebbutt/2008/08/putting-email-i.html

Free Unified Communications?
http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog/2008/12/15/free-unified-communications/

That should have been "I suggest you take a look at these two posts"

Well, after haing spentsome time with these programs, the two that I keep coming back to are SmartSheet and Teamwork PM. I like SmartSheet because I am partial to spreadsheets, and this is like a spreadsheet on steroids. It allows an infinite number of subtasks, and columns can be customized, so it reminds me a little bit of an Ecco notepad and columns. The sheets can be shared, embedded in read or edit mode on web sites, and they can also be published in read or edit modes wth a simple link. Its not strong enough to fully stand on its own, but it seems to do what it is designed to do very well, and would be great if it could be partnered up with some other tools to suit a user's needs. I am also playing with Teamwork PM (as well as having recently downloaded Joint Contact), and want to spend a bit more time trying things out before commenting. Both of these programs are more akin to the typical online PM software, but Teamwork PM seems to be a bit easier to grasp.

--Ken

Ken wrote:

Right now, I feel like am at the beginning of a paradigm
shift away from e-mail being the center of business communications, so I am just
getting my feet wet with this whole new category of software.

I wrote:

Yes, I know what you mean; I am in a similar situation --though other than ‘away from e-mail’ I have no idea where I’m going to…

I think now I know; it's not yet here, but just around the corner. My feeling is that it will eventually be available in most everyone of the serious online project management tools. It's called Google Wave:
http://andywibbels.com/2009/05/google-wave-keynote/

Alexander

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

It's called Google
Wave:
http://andywibbels.com/2009/05/google-wave-keynote/

This is absolutely amazing.

Tom S.

RE: Wave. Someone pinch and tell me this ain't real. The Wave is exactly what we've been looking for. I'm impressed. gB

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

I think now I know; it's not yet here, but just
around the corner. My feeling is that it will eventually be available in most everyone
of the serious online project management tools. It's called Google
Wave:
http://andywibbels.com/2009/05/google-wave-keynote/

Alexander

Agreed. I watched the whole Wave presentation yesterday and I was stunned. I think it will be huge. Used to its full potential, it should offer organisations the opportunity to make giant leaps in productivity, not just internally but in relationships with suppliers, customers....

FWIW This is absolutely amazing. There's a spot about 35 minutes in that has four people simultaneously editing a document in real time. I'm darned impressed.

But I am also worried that it won't catch on. My father is 68 years old. He doesn't know what a web browser even is. He calls it "Hotmail". To this day he still doesn't understand that the messages aren't actually stored on his computer.

I'd love to live in this thing. Its going to have to be simple, easy to use and its still going to have to handle basic protocols like email. Otherwise it could be just a relatively small group of techy geeks using it.

Getting to the point for our purposes here, as far as the organizational aspects of the thing, its essentially a very advanced wiki. It will only be limited by the number of types of objects it can handle. For instance, its going to have to at least support drag and drop of web clippings from another browser window. I didn't see it in the demonstration but I assume it can do that. Will I be able to drop in presentations? pdfs? What about the scientific graphing files that I have? That's going to make a difference.

Tom S.

Tom S. wrote:

But I
am also worried that it won't catch on. My father is 68 years old. He doesn't know what a
web browser even is. He calls it "Hotmail". To this day he still doesn't understand
that the messages aren't actually stored on his computer.

Yes, the one thing that occurred to me, from a business perspective, is that so many organisations still employ many people who can just about handle sending and receiving email. On a good day. Those people just won't get Wave.

I think products like Wave, which offer so much potential, will create huge pressure on employees who don't grasp the technology too well. It will no longer be acceptable to say "I'm not great with computers".

I was blown away by this. I think the fact that it will be open source and extensible gives it a good chance of succeeding.

My favorite part was the ability to split a message and spin off a sub-conversation from part of the message.

Adoption could be a problem, but if as long as you can get email messages into Wave, you could continue to work with people who don't use it - they just won't get the additional benefit. I think people are becoming much more used to how sites like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, etc. work, so this kind of interface to project collaboration could actually be pretty intuitive to a lot of folks.

Chris

What was interesting to me -- germaine to this forum -- is that ADM, besides being a 2 pane outliner, had a live component to it via SKYPE which allowed various participants to work on the same document, etc. It also integrated voice simultaneously. This was 2-3 yrs ago. Of course it wasn't as smooth as WAVE but it was fascinating to work within it. This was a nightly occurrence for me as I volunteered to help debug it with a tech in China. There was almost no delay when it worked right which was quite often. I believe this part of the code was written by a couple of very clever Russian programmers-for-hire in a relatively short period of time.... +/- 6 months. This was one of the reasons why ADM was such an interesting program & such a great disappointment in the end.

--
Jan Rifkinson
Ridgefield CT USA

I'm sure others have thought (or dreamed) about this before Google; but I for one am hopeful, for once, that Google is persistent and influential enough to make it happen.

My wife, who is also a project manager and coordinates people across borders through e-mail, VOIP and instant messaging, started telling me today how e-mail often actually slows her down. Without thinking too much about it I got into a speech of e-mail being 40 years old, and not well suited to modern real-time message exchange and multi-branch conversations, and how alll this will change with Google Wave and...

I tell you guys, I'm hooked.

Alexander