September 07, 2004

Online Collaboration Tools

Link to a presentation by Robin Good about Online Collaboration
Tools, in which he outlines new breeds of tools which are emerging and their benefits are:


  • generally inexpensive with pricing models that do not lock you into
    lengthy contracts, and allow you to budget for planned use rather than time
    or memory based charges.

  • simple feature sets that focus on doing one or two things well; many of
    the traditional tools have to compromise between a rich feature set and user
    interface simplicity.

  • easy to use intuitive interfaces

Names that Good sees as fitting the above descriptions: Groove, Flash
Communication Server, iVocalize, InstantPresenter, Glance, GoToMeeting,
Voxwire, iVisit...

Eight features Good recommends you should look for in an online collaboration tool (slides 16-17):



  1. Text chat

  2. VOIP

  3. Presence (ability to see when others available)

  4. Multi protocol Instant Messaging

  5. Inviting (being able to email someone into the meeting after it has
    started)

  6. Record / Saving sessions

  7. File Sharing

  8. Signalling (being able to use icons/ sounds to indicate agreement etc)

Posted by Kirsty at September 7, 2004 09:59 AM
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