Collaboration means a number of different things;
Collaborative writing
Collaborative working normally refers to a group of people working together to create a document, presentation, spreadsheet etc. Online office suites let people work on a common document or presentation – that is they have an equal ability to add, edit, or delete items in it. This means that only one master version of the document is maintained – rather than multiple copies showing different edits, which then have to be transferred onto a master document. Google Docs (on their Google Drive) – www.google.com/docs – is the most popular online office/collaboration suite.
Google Docs is quite a sophisticated product – and sometimes you might just want a simple tool for some ad hoc real-time collaboration. The first tool to support real-time collaboration was a tool called EtherPad.This was eventually acquired by Google to provide the real-time collaboration features that you have see in Google Docs. However, the Etherpad code was made open source so that individuals and organisations could host it themselves, and consequently a number of cloned platforms have emerged. One of them is EtherPad Lite - typewith.me
Collaborative writing tools
Here are some useful readings
- 15 tips to get the most out of Google Docs, The Next Web, 2 September 2011
- 5 steps for effective real-time document collaboration, WebWorker Daily, 12 July 2011
- 41 new ways Google Docs makes your life easier, Edudemic, 30 June 2010
- Interesting ways to use Google Docs in the classroom
Building a collaborative knowledge resource
Wikis – or editable web pages – provide another way of working collaboratively, e.g. to build a knowledge base or resource area. The most well-known example of a wiki is, of course, Wikipedia - Wikipedia.org. Every page in Wikipedia can be “edited”, which means it is constantly evolving and growing and can be kept up to date. It is now very easy to use the wiki approach to create a collaborative resource of your own, and there are a number of wiki tools available to do this. Wikispaces - Wikispaces - is probably the most popular wiki tool for education. But PBWorks – www.pbworks.com – is probably more popular for the workplace.
Wiki tools
Here are some useful readings
- Stop repeating yourself: set up a workplace wiki, Lifehacker, 14 September 2010
- 7 Deadly Sins That Block Team Collaboration (And How To Overcome Them), PBWorks
- 8 things you can do with an enterprise wiki, Future changes, 21 August 2009
Collaborative mindmapping
Mind mapping used to be an individual activity. You would simply get started with pen and paper at your desk or with some markers and a white board. But it’s no longer something you do on your own, but can do with colleagues and others online, and now some tools even have iPhone and iPad versions. Mindmeister – www.mindmeister.com – is a popular collaborative mindmapping tools.
Collaborative mindmapping tools
Here are a couple of useful readings
- Mind Mapping: A Better Tool for Innovation and Collaboration, Marketing Savant, 7 February 2011
- 10 values of collaborative mindmapping, Conspire, 8 September2009
Other collaboration tools
- Shareable/group organizers
- Collaborative corkboards
- Collaborative whiteboards
- Social calendaring tools
- Shareable mapping
Additionally group tools often provide different types of collaboration, see ENTERPRISE SOCIAL COLLABORATION PLATFORMS
