Comments for Poll: Which online collaboration platform do you use?

Poll: Which online collaboration platform do you use?

2007-06-11T09:36:21Z

This week's poll was requested by a reader, who wanted to find out what online collaboration platforms R/WW readers used. The email I received noted: "While mass services such as myspace and facebook get a lot of coverage, there's not a lot of data showing how well collaborative platforms do. I think that your audience could help." It's very true, the blog world tends to get excited about the latest consumer apps - like Facebook or Twitter - but there is a lot of interest outside the blogosphere on which online collaboration apps are being used.

Below is a list of such apps - and it is a fairly wide-ranging list, and open to contention about what exactly is an "online collaboration platform". I've included the main Web Office suite players, as well as project mgmt apps and some wiki platforms. And I'm bound to have missed a couple of obvious apps (do me a favor and yell out which obvious apps I forgot to include, asap, in the comments!).

]]> Also check out some of our posts on this topic, such as this Web Office roundup from August and indeed R/WW's Web Office category.

The poll is also multiple-choice, as I know a lot of people will use more than one of these apps (I know I do). So please participate in the poll and let's see which online collaboration platforms are the most popular.

Comment from Monika Bargmann on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T10:00:47Z

I work at the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, abnd we use the Factline Community Server (FCS) for online teaching, communication and collaboration and as a document repository:
see http://fcs.kundenplattform.com/ for information about the product and http://campusib.fh-burgenland.at/ to get an impression about how the platform looks like at our institution (in German). Students and faculty also have their own individual e-portfolios based on FCS.

Comment from Szymon on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T10:15:13Z

As a web development shop we use: basecamp + springloops + freshbooks.

Everything integrates smoothly together thanks to Basecamp integration. THE platform.

Comment from Matt Mueller on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T11:40:00Z

I think you should probably add Voo2do to the list...although it hasn't gotten as much hype as some of these, it is a great platform.

Comment from Jaap Steinvoorte on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T11:58:37Z

I use Sharepoint 2007 as intranet/extranet collaboration platform

Comment from Honor Gunday on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T12:00:35Z

We looked at basecamp, some open source alternatives,etc... and although most of the new collaboration platforms use ajax and make it speedy to create todo lists, buglists, task lists... they have too much functionality and they break the thought process. Instead of concentrating on your tasks, you concentrate on breaking down your task, items into actionable items... anyways I didn't find these useful, so we built our own called Stuff Manager. It allows the team to create an editable document, bullet-list the items that they want, add photos, upload or paste any content from the outside and then when you save the document, you can also tag it so you can find it in the document index. We store all our specs, discussions, referenceable items in stuff manager. Google docs is nice also, but it doesn't support tagging as I know and doesn't support categories.. or uploads... I am curious about why the other collaboration platforms are so great for many people...

Comment from Peter Daams on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T12:10:39Z

Trac is our current development collaboration tool of choice.

Comment from Bob Haugen on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T12:24:34Z

Still using JotSpot

Comment from Benjamin on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T13:07:20Z

I also use HiTask for collaborative tasks.

Comment from Geo Perdis on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T14:26:52Z

Octopz is a recently launched online collaboration service that lets people work on digital documents and rich media including video, with fully integrated text, voice and video chat using only a web browser.

Comment from R Barrera on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T14:32:13Z

I have also been exploring huddle.net and foldera.com

Comment from Walker Hamilton on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T14:59:13Z

We use a combination of basecamp and joyent's connector Suite to get our work done.

Comment from TJ on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T15:33:24Z

My organisation is currently investigating a new online collaboration tool called Huddle.

Comment from Brad Feldstein on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T15:35:55Z

For online collaboration, our team uses Basecamp, Skype and Yugma.

Comment from Stephan Voigt, iqpi's world on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T15:42:09Z

Since available in March 2007 I'm using Mindquarry to share files and ideas. It's simple to uses with it's basic functionality, but still universal in use like a Swiss army knife. :-)

Comment from TRJ on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T15:42:13Z

My organisation is currently investigating a new online collaboration solution called Huddle.

Comment from Emre Sokullu on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T15:44:19Z

@Honor'cƒ±m :) Google Docs supports everything you mention - tags, uploads etc. You have too much workforce man :)

I prefer Google Apps and 37Signals products. As for wiki, I use open source DokuWiki but am looking into enterprise hosted solutions like SocialText too. Trust is the most important parameter here.

Comment from Jon Landau on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T16:11:14Z

Even though it's relatively new, I'm surprised Huddle did not make it onto your poll list. I've found this the best tool for online collaboration and much more user friendly than the majority of others on the list.

The most important difference with Huddle is that it allows you to manage and view multiple projects from one central dashboard- so you have one login to access everything, whether you are managing lots of projects or a member of different teams. There are also no upload limits, thumbnailing as standard for images and a simple user interface, so those who aren't already using it should give it a try

Comment from Jack on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T16:11:59Z

I use Clearspace from Jive. Our company was going with Sharepoint, but Clearspace was better on almost every front.

Comment from Aidan on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T16:46:03Z

We've also been using Huddle - its very easy to use and I don't think we've scratched the surface of what we can do with it yet.

Comment from Josh Catone on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T18:43:23Z

I mostly stick with Basecamp, Skype, email, and IM (usually MSN or Yahoo!).

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T20:59:14Z

Great response so far; and there a few new ones here I need to check out (Huddle, Mindquarry, etc).

As for me, I use a mix of Google Apps, Zoho, Basecamp and every now and then JotSpot. But I've played around with most of the products listed.

Comment from Bruce on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T21:50:56Z

Here is a fairly new player on the block e-LM.com, a collaboration space for managing project scope, quality, traceability, risk, issues, change and documentation.

Comment from Chris Brown on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T21:58:18Z

Other: ConceptShare

Comment from Jim Cheetham on 2007-06-11

2007-06-11T22:03:50Z

For technical collaboration (i.e. working on code-like objects) in the Open Source world you have to go a long way to beat Trac - http://edgewall.com/trac - combined with a simple mailing-list for group messages.

2007-06-11T22:20:03Z

Goplan here.

Comment from Dave Witzel on 2007-06-12

2007-06-12T18:46:06Z

We use ProjectSpaces (http://www.ProjectSpaces.com) a home-grown product that we also offer as a hosted solution. We've focused on ease-of-use and get good feedback from users that it really is easy to use.

Comment from Austin on 2007-06-19

2007-06-19T21:12:31Z

Hi Richard,

This is Austin from Yugma (www.yugma.com). I noticed your poll on web collaboration services, and I would like to encourage you and your readers to try Yugma, our web conferencing and collaboration service. We are completely focused on being extremely easy, inexpensive, and cross-platform compatible. In addition to having excellent service for Windows users, we‚Äôve been getting great reviews for our ease of use and support for Mac users. We also recently launched support for Linux (8 versions supported). CNet recognized Yugma this year by selecting us as a finalist in its 2007 Webware 100 Awards.

Feature highlights:
- Extremely easy-to-use design
- Free service connects up to 10 people
- Premium services connect up to 500 people
- Real-time desktop sharing and collaboration
- Mouse and keyboard sharing
- Whiteboard and annotating tools
- Session recording and playback
- Real-time private and public chat
- Built-in file sharing
- Yugma can be embedded into any website or application
- No Spyware, Adware or Malware

It‚Äôs a snap to try Yugma. We currently offer 15 days of trial Premium Service, and our basic version is FREE forever. As you can see, the features and price are hard to beat! I hope you like what we‚Äôve put together. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we‚Äôd love to hear from you. Just email us at info@yugma.com. Thanks!

Best regards,
Austin Sponsel
‚Äî‚Äî‚Äî
Yugma Marketing Team
www.yugma.com

Comment from Ty on 2007-06-20

2007-06-20T16:00:31Z

I use Engage ThoughtWare's ThoughtTree application. ThoughtTree is a collaboration application that is far beyond anything I have seen before. Engage offers a free trial which is the best way to experience the software with your own work team. You can also get a discount for using this promotion code: E43278