Comparing Collaboration Tools
Choosing a tool or set of tools to use when collaborating presents many challenges. Will my colleagues be willing to get yet another login? Will we use just email for communication, or should we make sure some IM or audio is available? How will we share documents?
All the systems included here allow you to store and share files of many types, including images, Stata files, video, etc. Here's a summary of a few of the off-the-shelf options available to people looking for a new online collaboration tool. I'll post more information about each system and how to tell which is right for you. Please feel free to email me if you'd like help planning for and setting up a new collaboration. I'm sure we can work something out.
| System | View/edit docs | White- board |
Chat | Video | Wiki | Platform | Login | Support | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CTools | x (text) | X | Any | UMich | Email, phone | Free | |||
| Groove | X | X (text, audio) | PC | Groove | Online | part of Office 2007; $149.95 and up | |||
| Basecamp | X | X | Any | Basecamp or OpenID | $24/month and up | ||||
| Vyew | X | X (text) | X | Any | Vyew | Online | Free/ $6.95/ $13.95 and up per month | ||
| Google (combine Docs/Sites/Groups) | X | X (text) | X | Any | Online | Free | |||
| Zoho | X | X (text) | X | Any | Zoho | Email/online | Free/$50 | ||
| Adobe Connect | X | X (text, audio) | X | Any | Adobe | Email/online | $750/month |
Honorable mention: eXpresso lets you upload and edit an Excel document together. Support for other Office documents is coming but no timeline is set.
December 31st, 2008 - 17:53
Another choice for a collaboration tool is Dabbleboard. In your table, it would look similar to Vyew. But Dabbleboard’s focus is the whiteboard, with a reinvented interface that makes drawing much easier and -hence- makes users more productive.
December 31st, 2008 - 19:38
Thanks for the tip, Zohair. I signed up for Dabbleboard and will try it out and report back.