Communication tools

[Ryan L. Cross]

I've seen one or two other posts that somewhat addressed this, but they weren't directly related to the topic.

I'm curious to hear what tools you have in place for communication between members. We're currently using three:

GroupMe: Immediately reaching the group - members are asked to be very respectful and use it only when necessary as to not spam everyone. Free!

Campfire (just moved from Jaconda) - Chat room for every day use. Quite expensive, but quality. Mobile access, etc.

Google Groups - for longer term communication.

I'm asking because while we once were very active in communication through these tools, thing seem to have been cooling down lately (after a year and a half). There's not much activity in these channels. I'm asking about this partly to see if anyone else has a solution that might be a tad more engaging and partly out of morbid curiosity.

[Alex Hillman]

- We use Hipchat at Indy Hall, it's pretty popular for daily banter and people who aren't in for the day to keep in touch.

- We use/abuse Basecamp for our message board. That's being replaced soon with a homebrew solution. The key here, of course, is that email is the common denominator no matter how many social tools are built. 

- We used GroupMe when ~20 of our members were in Austin together for SXSW. It was awesome, but it limits groups to 25 people IIRC.

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

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[Tom Brandt]

We use a Google group at Workantile, but are looking for another solution due to difficulties with group member management and other shortcomings. It gets used extensively by the membership. We played around with irc, but only the nerdiest of the nerds used it and I don't think it is used much anymore if at all.

Our Thursday social lunches is where a lot of informal communication happens. We have one member who seems to come in only for the Thursday lunches.

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[Jacob Sayles]

We use an all member mailing list.  We've been using Mailman but our hosting company limits our discussions to 100 users and we have 102 members.  We looked at lots of different solutions, including Google Groups, and instead are switching to a mailing list that is integrated into Nadine, which we use for member management.  This way all current members will be subscribed automatically.  We are switching to that in the coming weeks.

I've been wanting some form of chat and I'm looking into Hip Chat, and IRC options.  

Jacob

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Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
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[rachel young]

We use Yammer. I used it while working with a few years ago and love it, and about a year or so ago Yammer opened up communities that can have members from other domains. It is desktop, web, and mobile. It's free for the basic version, costs very little for the paid version which includes the admin panel. We encourage our members to use it for personal, professional, and promotional, and so far no one uses it for spam. Since we're split on 2floors, it's convenient to post there about a new snack in one of the kitchens or to loop in folks from the other floor about a request for help or to spread the word about a great new member success, etc. And it's awesome for those who aren't there for a day or more (vacations or part timers, for examples) to feel like they didn't miss too much. 

Also, members who move on from the space are welcome to stay in our Yammer community, kinda like alumni. Most unsubscribe themselves, but they are told they are welcome to stay and participate, and who knows if they will come back.

r.

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[elf Pavlik]

Hello,

Excerpts from Ryan L. Cross's message of 2012-03-16 23:26:41 +0000:

> GroupMe: Immediately reaching the group - members are asked to be very
> respectful and use it only when necessary as to not spam everyone. Free!

Myself, and many other people, notice limitation of english language to express concept of 'FREE'
In practice, I see often those who try to express themselves clearly using:

* free as in 'free beer'
* free as in 'freedom' (or combine it with libre)

Sadly I notice common use of 'free' meaning just as in 'free beer' but sort of ignoring this 'freedom' part =(

For free as in FREEDOM real time chat solution, I can recommend an open protocol XMPP - de facto standard, used by gtalk or even facebook. On software side you may like investigating https://project.jappix.com/

In general when using 'free as free beer' services of for profit companies, I strongly suggest to take some time of investigating all the details of such deal ;)

Cheers!
~ elf Pavlik ~

[Nick]

We've recently launched abTeamUp to try to fill some of the void that's being discussed here. We're still early days but already members can add their business to our directory for free, link up with one another, write reviews about their experiences of those they've met or used the services of, and refer each other.They can also message one another and make use of our online forums to discuss topics of mutual interest. Very soon now we'll be introducing the ability to get together in online teams in order to work together both online and offline (for those who are in local coworking groups).

We'd appreciate the support of members here who want to register for free and certainly appreciate your feedback to add features that will help support coworking.

Cheers,

Nick

@abTeamUp

On Tuesday, 23 October 2012 19:04:14 UTC+1, Vanessa Vela wrote:

Hi everyone!

I am a newbie :) I wanted to say thank you for all the amazing knowledge and experiences you share out here, just reading through the discussions has been very enlightening.

We are in the process of opening our Axispace in Fort Lauderdale in the next few months and a mix of the platforms you mention on this thread as far as communications and collaboration seems fantastic (Hipchat, Basecamp, GroupMe, Yammer)

I have researched them a little, and I get the impression they are great if you already know people you will be communicating and collaborating with, but how about if you are in the process of trying to meet people, or even introduce people you already know. I understand that a lot of that should happen offline, with events and different initiatives. But how about online? Perhaps we are less inhibited in trying to find out about others when we know nobody is watching?

I came across this video from Wework

http://app.wework.com/log-in

I was wondering what people that are already immersed in the practice of community building think of a platform like this?

Do guys know of anything existing that resembles this app's purpose?

Cheers!

Vanessa

@vanevela