Franchot Campbell's List: The 10 C's: Internet Collaboration

• is the hotel genuinely popular with travelers? According to traveler reviews on TripAdvisor.com, it more than lives up to the hype with rave reviews

• Twitter has a range of uses and benefits for business, and can complement other communication channels.
• Twitter is a way to keep your followers up to date with current information about your business. Importantly, it lets followers communicate with you too.
• For example, cinemas use Twitter to converse with patrons, recommend new release movies and retweet interesting tweets from movie buffs and experts.
• Many Australian businesses use social media, including Twitter, to invite online feedback, reviews or comments. This information is useful for businesses that want to improve, and also for potential customers doing research for their own purchases.
• For Twitter-savvy customers, asking questions and getting services via Twitter is very convenient. A large telecommunications company has capitalised on this, providing a 24-hour response service for all sorts of customer queries, with staff using their names and answering in a chatty, personal tone.

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• Increased Flexibility: 

   

   Since team discussions and contributions can take placeasynchronously  , studentsare able to contribute at a time and place that is convenient to them
• Equity and accessibility:

   

   The online environment provides students living with a disability or accessibility issue, the opportunity to participate more easily and equally. Similarly, students that are more reticent inclass, or who are less amiliar with the language in which the class is conducted, are able to participatemore easily and condently when they can prepare and or reread contributions beore posting them
• Peer review, assessment and moderation:

   

   Online contexts allow team members to easily review, provideeedback, and assess one another’s work, and how other team members have perormed within the group.

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• • Email, MS Office and phone
  Everybody knows how to use them. If it does the job then it's the right tech! Working with word: Have folders for different versions of files and have a systematic file naming convention.
• • Google Apps
  Google docs for planning and joint editing => see http://ictkm.cgiar.org/2009/07/03/useful-tips-for-collaborative-writing-with-google-docs-and-google-sites/ for tips on joint editing; the different Google tools are not well integrated with each other. A combination Google docs/skype conference call can be used for planning, minute-taking and follow-up of virtual team meetings, see detailed description under T4-2 at http://apintalisayon.wordpress.com/
• • Teleconference tools
  Skype (www.skype.com), VOIP buster (http://www.voipbuster.com/) and Google Talk (http://www.google.com/talk/) These tools allow you to enter a group conversation. If you use a webcam you can see each other. Skype also has a chat feature, which can be used to track the conversation. As in a regular meeting, how the process is facilitated is most important. Skype chat is good for quick updates and also works asynchronous.
• • Chat tools
  Yahoo messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com/) , MSN (http://www.msn.com/) , Gabbly (http://home.gabbly.com/) , Meebo ( http://www.meebo.com/) With these tools you can exchange messages via text, one on one or in a group. You can see who is online and then send a quick message. It is easy for short lines of communication: even a little tune, hear what someone is doing. Use of these tools during the work gives a sense of togetherness and cooperation.
• • Collaboration suites
  Collaboration suites are a collection of multiple basic collaborative tools that teams need to work together - document management, project management, email wikis, shared calendars etc. The approach here is that there is no one right tool for team collaboration, and teams are more productive if they have all their tools in a single place. Google Apps (<!-- ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:344:http://www.google.com/a -->http://www.google.com/a<!-- ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:344 -->), Office 365 (<!-- ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:345:http://www.office365.com -->http://www.office365.com<!-- ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:345 -->) and HyperOffice (<!-- ws:start:WikiTextUrlRule:346:http://www.hyperoffice.com -->http://www.hyperoffice.com<!-- ws:end:WikiTextUrlRule:346 -->) are examples.
• • Wiki tools
  PBwiki (www.pbwiki.com) , mediawiki (www.mediawiki.org) , Wikispaces (www.wikispaces.com ) and Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com) A wiki is ideal if you want to work together on a document or keep track of an issue where you work with each other. When using a wiki it is nice if someone from the team feels responsible for the structure of the wiki. Wiki-based tools work great for people who like non-linear thinking and who are a bit more used to working with web-based tools.
• • Discussion forums
  Google Groups (http://groups.google.com/), Yahoo groups (http://groups.yahoo.com/), dgroups (www.dgroups.com) as email based groups or ning (www.ning.com) as an example of an online forum that is not based on email. A discussion forum can be used for asynchronous discussions. So you can post messages on an online forum and later read what your team-mates say. With email group everyone gets all posts by email. The advantage over "normal" email traffic is that there is an online archive (searchable).
• • Project management tools
  Base Camp (http://www.basecamphq.com/) or Foldera (http://www.foldera.com/) Project management tools are designed to support virtual team work on a project. There are features like a calendar, a to-do list, a message board, milestone tracking etc. There is also the possibility to share documents. It may be useful as a central online place for the team and can act as a 'virtual office'.
• • Social book marking
  Delicious (http://del.icio.us) , Magnolia (http://ma.gnolia.com/) or Furl (http://www.furl.net/) These tools allow you to use the Internet as a place to store and share your bookmarks. It works like the list of "favorites" on your own computer. Social book makes your favorites also visible to others. You can categorize bookmarks by 'tags' related to the topics your team is working on.
• • RSS feed readers
  bloglines (www.bloglines.com) , personalized google pages (http://www.google.com/ig) Pageflakes (http://www.pageflakes.com/) Via a RSS feed reader, you can keep track of new messages to sites with an RSS feed. Usually you get to see the title, and you can click for more information. If the team uses a blog for example, the RSS feed reader makes sure you do not miss a blog post.
• • Free Online Surveys online questionnaires
  www.freeonlinesurveys.com , Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) Want to know how various team members think on a particular aspect of the project? You can easily compile an online questionnaire and send it to the team. The results are often well organized and graphically displayed.
• • Meeting Planner
  (www.meetingwizard.com) , event planner (www.datumprikker.nl) and Doodle (http://www.doodle.ch/) With all the different calendars making appointments is often a huge task. There are web tools that make the process a lot easier. Someone chooses a number of suitable dates, other team members indicate which dates suit them.
• • Screen sharing tools
  Unyte (www.unyte.net) or Vyew (http://www.vyew.com/) A screen sharing tool lets you share your computer with someone else at the other end of the world. This would allow you to show your team how to use certain tools, or how the presentation for tomorrow looks like. Useful with a tool like skype teleconference
• • Huddle
  Dropbox for file sharing, see www.drop.io WebIDEAPro (KS software developed by Applied Intelligence Atelier, www.a-i-a.com) central desktop zoho (interesting alternative to Google Apps)

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• Online collaboration tools allow for people to work together via the internet.
• Wikis are one type of online collaboration tool that are web pages with an edit button. One of the most commonly known wikis is Wikipedia, the collaborative, online encyclopedia. Wiki technology creates a webpage that anyone with permission to access can modify—quickly and easily.
• Wikis are a tool to help manage multiple contributors to documents or projects.  They can be public or password-protected. Users can add to and edit pages or documents on a wiki -—and you can view changes made by different users or go back to previous versions. Popular wiki platforms include PBWorks and twiki.
• Cloud storage is a system that backs up data on a server (instead of media like a hard drive or compact disc) and is accessible to a single or multiple users via an internet connection. Email is an example of cloud storage.

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• Basecamp is an extremely powerful and useful online project collaboration system designed for entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers and business groups.

• Skype

    

  Online video conferences have become widespread in the modern professional world, helping to cut down dramatically on travel costs and expensive long distance phone calls.
• Although Basecamp reigns supreme in the online project management systems market, other contenders have emerged that cater to more specific project types. One such tool is Trello – a simple and free online collaboration tool perfect for individual or smaller group projects. Trello’s friendly interface allows users to create a project by adding items and lists, and assigning people to specific tasks. The online tool then provides real time updates on all actions and progress to members of the project team.
• Sync.in is online collaboration in its simplest form. This web-based word processor enables users to view and co-edit the same notes and documents in real time from anywhere in the world. Numerous users can collectively plan projects, brainstorm and compose documents, while color coded text allows people to easily identify who made which edits. A handy time-slider also allows users to recount earlier versions and edits of the document and edit any changes made, while a chat box enables communication between the various collaborators. Sync.in is incredibly easy to use, the basic service is free, and it requires no logging in or signing up.

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• According to a recent McKinsey Report office workers spend an average of 28 hours a week writing emails, searching for information and collaborating internally.
• We used to spend half our time educating clients about the benefits of social collaboration. These days, businesses are approaching us with clearly defined strategies for reducing overheads and connecting remote working teams. The market has grown up. 
• start-ups offering freemium, cloud-based solutions that also work across mobile have “exploded the size of the [enterprise collaboration] market”.
• there’s the recession, which is forcing businesses to do more with less including, in many cases, getting rid of the office and relying on shared working spaces for collaboration.
• more than 1 billion people actively using Facebook, we’ve all become more familiar with news feeds, activity streams and @mentions – common features of enterprise social networks.
• the tools themselves have got better. Many now integrate with Google Drive, offer seamless synching with Google and Outlook calendars, have mobile apps and provide highly secure document storage. Most are easy to set up and use and come with simple monthly tariffs.
• Now that it’s been put on plate for them, it seems businesses are finally taking to online collaboration.

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• An online collaboration tool like ProofHub enables prompt and accurate communication over business matters.
• A firm can easily reach out to another organization based in a different part of the world and can effortlessly discuss over a matter.
• Multiple individuals from both the firms can easily join in a discussion and can resolve an issue promptly and harmoniously.
• This drastically reduces the need for a face-to-face meeting between different organizations based in different parts of the world who want to work together.
• This saves time and costs and they can communicate quite conveniently and with focus.
• An organization's efficiency is significantly improved and the results from such communications can be readily implemented.
• This proves to be a boon for small business firms who do not have much resources but still can grow like well-established businesses without investing much.
• They can better collaborate and tie up with other firms with similar business interests and tap new business opportunities.

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• The most obvious benefit of online collaboration is that it lets people who aren't in the same location work together on a project.
• Since several companies have offices in multiple cities and countries, it's important to find ways to keep all the people working on a project informed and engaged.
• Sometimes it makes sense for a company to hold a meeting online rather than in a physical location
• If a company or department meeting has a lot of participants, it can be a challenge to find a room large enough for everyone
• Online meeting spaces can be an attractive alternative to cramming a room with disengaged employees.
• it can make team projects easier to manage.

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• collaborative learning works in two types of online courses—one in the all-familiar massive, open and online course, MOOCs, and the other a closed, fee-based course, COLC, which is the acronym I’m using to label a closed, online, for-credit learning, course.

• n the classes, the new collaboration platform lets instructors do a variety of things that the previous technologies could not, including:

  -- Referencing back coursework, discussions, and resolutions

  -- Collaboration outside the classroom

  -- Creating a portfolio that students can access after their class is complete

  -- Pulling together weeks of class work into one place, allowing students to see the evolution of the class

  -- Enabling new faculty/student interaction for required internships and externships.
• These connections broaden the opportunities for students to collaborate and build ideas together, and to develop networks with one another and even with alumni. In this way, the online technology enables connections that previously could not have existed, and channels those interactions in productive ways.
• Part of the power of the internet lies in its universality. Anyone anywhere can find any piece of information or communicate with anyone and everyone else.
• While the classroom has typically functioned as an isolated unit, wikis and Web 2.0 offer the possibility of erasing those (figurative) walls and allowing collaboration across boundaries.
• the age of collaboration is coming. Over 250,000 educators already use PBwiki, and the number is growing. In this new age, education rather than entertainment will take center stage, and institutions that pioneer collaborative learning will be well-positioned for this and subsequent centuries.

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• refers to Web, social and software tools used to facilitate website customer communication for increased sales and satisfaction on the Internet in real time.
• Web collaboration techniques include phone/text chat and remote multiuser conferences/seminars via intranet or phone systems.
• a component of unified communications, which facilitate organizational teamwork and workflow.

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• The real treasure trove was to be found in the students' innovations. Working together, and often alongside their professors, they came up with far more learning apps for their iPods than anyone—even at Apple—had dreamed possible.
• Students who had grown up connected digitally gravitated to ways that the iPod could be used for collective learning. They turned iPods into social media and networked their learning in ways we did not anticipate.
• one class interviewed families in a North Carolina community concerned with lead paint in their homes and schools, commented on one another's interviews, and together created an audio documentary that aired on local and regional radio stations and all over the Web.
• In the music department, students uploaded their own compositions to their iPods so their fellow students could listen and critique.
• "Participatory learning" is one term used to describe how we can learn together from one another's skills. "
• Cognitive surplus" is another used in the digital world for that "more than the sum of the parts" form of collaborative thinking that happens when groups think together online.
• Collaboration by difference is an antidote to attention blindness. It signifies that the complex and interconnected problems of our time cannot be solved by anyone alone, and that those who think they can act in an entirely focused, solitary fashion are undoubtedly missing the main point that is right there in front of them
• it turns out to be efficient in the end and necessary for success if one seeks an outcome that is unexpected and sustainable.

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• converging technology and collaborative behavior has helped disrupt the traditional way of doing things and created more value for businesses and users.
• collaboration is a key enabler in connecting people with devices, turning data into information that people can use to improve processes and generate more value.
• This is a wide ecosystem where everyone can participate and benefit: Small businesses, enterprises, service providers, system integrators, device makers are all critical to building out the connections and scaling experiences across every industry.
• the payoff is not just in the number of connections, but the value of the connections.
• Business value creation has shifted to the power of connections and the ability to create intelligence from those connections.
• capture intelligence faster, from many external sources.
• has enormous potential to not only transform industries, but also to capture new business value.
• takes us to new levels of improving productivity, streamlining inefficient processes, making new connections, and improving customer experience and employee value.

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