Online Collaboration Tools for Power Productivity
Working as a freelance graphic designer I tend to work with bloggers, web designers, programmers and writers all the time, I tend to work with virtual teams which often means I can receive up to 30 emails every day on pending projects, many of which are different versions of the same files, over time this can becoming confusing and often difficult to locate files and understand the flow of conversation.
I made the switch to use collaboration tools to help improve communication and be more productive with executing projects, by cutting down on sending emails back and forth and allowing peers to work together virtually. Many of these invaluable services are completely free which makes them fantastic for freelancers and start-ups.
Document sharing
Google Docs allows you to share and collaborate on projects online, instead of emailing multiple versions of attachments via email, and trying hard to keep track of individual contributions and updates through email, you can make all the edits in one central location, and share those changes with your co-workers. Users can even add comments and make changes to the file; live, without any versioning issues. What’s particularly useful is the track changes feature which allows anyone to view edits and additions going back several versions.
There are numerous other document collaboration tools such as Redliner, doingText, PBWorks which are paid services, but have much more advanced versioning history and commenting features, including a slightly more sophisticated document and spreadsheet functionality than Google Docs.
PBWorks is additionally designed to work with clients, which can be helpful to collaborate with co-workers and keep clients in the loop of progress. PBWorks also has the added benefit of being a project management tool so managers can assign tasks to employees without the strain of getting everyone together for face to face team meetings.
Online Storage and backup
Online backup services like Dropbox allow users to backup their important files online, additionally subscribers can synchronise their documents between multiple computers so their files and folders are always updated, this is particularly useful for mobile workers to have a reliable backup of their files online. Additionally online storage services like Dropbox allows users to share much larger and different types of files online which may not be supported by Google Docs. Currently Dropbox has a competitive $5 per month for personal accounts allowing unlimited storage facilities, and tiered packages for larger companies.
Many online backup providers like SugarSync, Mozy, Opendrive etc. Provide free accounts to incentivise users to try they services, ranging from 2GB-5GB storage space.
Web conferencing
For many internet businesses employees can be located throughout the world, and for many companies it’s normal for employees to work while travelling or from home. This can make it impossible for teams to have face to face meetings, which are important for planning, problem solving and brainstorming.
WebConference.com has an affordable solution to chat live with voice or video, and provides administrators and moderators to present slides and brainstorm with members on the digital whiteboard. For start-ups and charitable organisation dimdim provides a free and open source web conferencing solution.
About the Author: This blog post was written by Karim, a serial blogger, a tech junkie and fitness freak. His current project is the online backup reviews website, where he reviews different cloud backup services.
Category: Online Business
About the Author (Author Profile)
Shiva Chettri is the editor and owner of Netchunks, a premier blog about Webmaster and Blogging Tips. He intends to make the web a friendlier place by sharing stuffs and articles which will help other webmasters and bloggers to becomes successful. His other interests includes Web Designing, Wordpress and Music of almost every genre. Send +Shiva an email at admin@netchunks.comSubscribe
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Twitter: mani0993
says:
Will try PBWorks. Dropbox is the online storage which is pretty reliable & user friendly. But I use Gmail to store majority of my files.
Mani Viswanathan recently posted..Sign Up to Get the 1 Button for your Website or Blog
Google Docs is very extremely useful tool. Now we don’t have to copy and resend one and the same document. When I started working with google docs, I was happy – no delays in paper work anymore!
Twitter: sureshpeterss
says:
seems still lot of open source tools missing in it
but a good post..you made me remind abt those one
sureshpeters recently posted..How To Create Custom Google Alerts
I use basecamp and google docs for the different online collaboration that needs to be done. I have recently just been introduced to dropbox too and I like the free storage they offer. Even if the free storage is limited, one can always refer other people to dropbox and once they sign up you get an increase on your storage limit
I’ve been using dropbox for some time now.I’ve not yet tried google docs i will give it a try .
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google docs is most power tool and easy to use and some time it helps us to save & provide a proof for a commitment to other dealing clients.
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Twitter: rohitbatra14
says:
Google Docs is the best tool to edit create office documents online for free..even Microsoft also tried to start-up a service like this but could not get enough audience..
Rohit recently posted..Tiny Wings Game for iPod Touch 4G
I guess web conferencing tool is gorgeous as it simplifies the process of negotiating and reduces costs on travelling and conducting meetings and negotiations.
GoogleDocs is very easy and best option available which you can use in multiple projects without any headache.
Sam recently posted..Summer Holiday Packages
Not long ago, I’ve started using some collaboration tools, for example SVN, Google Docs and Drop Box. For now all those work very well for me.
Nice post. Will try using Dropbox. I use DeskAway as my online collaboration tool. It integrates with Google doc and hence it save lots of clicks and time when I am collaborating with my team. Do check it out.
I have tried using Google docs, and it is really convenient especially in writing articles. Google docs spreadsheet can also be helpful when more than one person are working hand on hand on the spreadsheet. Internet has surely made our life easy. Thanks for sharing, Shiva.
Alvin Y. recently posted..Three Spot-on Tips to Find Perfect Gifts for Men
I have use Dropbox and SugarSycn but I have not had a chance to try the others yet.
Nicholas Teo recently posted..Daily Feng Shui Calendar- 19 April 2011
I like Dropbox even though I only use it for certain files. I need to try out webconference.com as it seems like it would fit my needs more than using Skype and such.
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I have used all of this tools, except web conferencing, but I think this is my mistake as this can work very well for my business.
You might be interested in RHUB (http://www.rhubcom.com). It offers multi-point video conferencing in addition to online collaboration services. The cost is also very cheap and needs only $995 as one-time payment.
The tools are really useful in both ways if you work at the same office or sharing information with different branch of the company. I successfully start working with Google Docs and some project management online tools and work is going much easier.
I have spent some time researching web conferencing programs but the only one that I keep coming back to is GoToMeeting. I have never heard of webconferencing.com if they have a free trial membership it would be worth checking out.
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Contrich ( http://www.contrich.com ) is another such collaboration tool for Content Teams in a Web Development Environment. With features like inline content editing, content review, automatic page vertification, seo reports and much more, it can tremendously increase the teams’s productivity. Check out the short video tutorial on the homepage.
Hi!
I also would like to share my opinion about another online collaboration software – http://www.projektino.com. I’ve been using it lately and I’m quite saisfied with it. Projektino is a cloud-based collaboration platform, which helps to run projects in a secure online space. You can communicate with others, organize personal life as well as manage project in your company, assign tasks to people, set due dates etc. I find Projektino very helpful.
Web conferencing is a great way to improve online productivity especially web conferencing that allows screen sharing. I can’t tell you how nice of a feature that is.
I think this is the concept of Cloud Computing, isn’t it? All over its good idea, I appreciate it. Thanks.
Google Docs has been a gift for start ups and for companies who outsource virtually. It may be just a good enough doc program for uncomplicated documents and worksheets, but the fact that you can share this makes it easy for team members to keep track of their work without having to send emails all the time.
We use Dooster for online collaboration and task management. The extensive features found with Dooster are comparable to those provided by more expensive and less user-friendly task management programs – so we get the benefits and features that a bigger companies pays big bucks for, at a much lower price.
I use Basecamp and Google Docs various online collaboration, which has to be done. Have recently been introduced Dropbox too much and I like free storage space they offer. Even if free space is limited, you can always refer to the set of other people, and when they log on to increase storage
Google Docs are really helpful but still limited features. I recently used http://www.teamworklive.com/ which is a web-based online collaboration tool for managing internal and client projects. It works good and you may find it helpful. Let me know your thoughts.. Any other tools??
This is a good article that highlights a good feature of Online Backup. It can offer more flexibility for accessing files, and in turn making collaboration easier.