Collaborate

Most of the work I do is collaborative.  Project team members, vendors and clients all benefit from clear communication and transparency of process.  Search for ‘collaboration online’ and you’ll see how significant this field is.  

A site I have used extensively to organize projects and host collaborative development is pbworks.com.   A good, clear article by Yegor Gilyov about pbworks is here.  Sometimes it is helpful to have a product compared to another to highlight its features.  Here PBWorks is compared with BaseCamphq.  I have used BaseCamp a number of times and appreciate its usefulness and like Gilyov, find PBWorks just that much more versatile.  

How huge is the collaboration world online?  Check out Robin Good’s one page visual at MindMeister.com.  If  you are considering using online collaborative tools within your organization, let me help you decide which is most suited to your needs.  I have a cursory knowledge of many of them and specific, first-hand-use knowledge about these.
BaseCamp
Google Docs
Huddle
DropBox
youSendIt
PBWiki (now PBWorks)
WetPaint
WikiSpaces
Scribd
Issu
Ning
GoToMeeting
Campfire
EventBrite
GoogleWave
Skype
Google Chat
ICQ
SlideShare
Adobe Connect Pro

Of course, I have my favourites but these are the main tools we have chosen to use or been inflicted with by project partners.  My partners use other programs to facilitate their specialty skills. 

What have you used?  What do you recommend? Why?  Let’s all learn from one another.