Collaboration software

[FAIC Digital Landscape Project]

Do you use any collaboration software (e.g. Basecamp, GoToMeeting, etc.) within your institution or for joint projects with other institutions/professionals?  Which do you prefer?  What are the short-comings?

[Eric Pourchot]

For FAIC projects, we use Go To Meeting, BaseCamp, and DropBox, but somehow keep coming back to email and conference calls.  Each tool has its own strengths and limitations, but none has worked fully for sharing/editing of documents, conducting discussions, and keeping projects on track.

[D Zorich]

I have used Basecamp and Sharepoint pretty extensively. I think one of the problems with using these collaboration software products is that they require users to jump into another environment and work within that environment only. They don't easily integrate with our day-to-day workflows. For example, when I want to send a message to project collaborators, I have to log into the collaborative software environment, post the message, and log out. Why can't I just compose the message in my local email client and then designate that it goes to the collaborative environment? Interestingly, these software programs allow for the opposite exchange, i.e., I can post in the collaborative environment, and the post is sent to all collaborators' local email inboxes (so they don't have to log in to the collaborative environment to see the message).

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 5:35:17 AM UTC-4, FAIC Digital Landscape Project wrote:

[Bonnie Naugle]

I use Dropbox as a shared server. It's great for archiving digital files and for working collaboratively with remote users on the same documents. The primary drawback is the size limit for free users is 5GB, while the next account level is ~$100 per year for 1TB of space. There's not a middle range. However, the ability to recover files that have been changed or deleted by other users makes the cost worthwhile on a (small) institutional level. 

On Thursday, October 23, 2014 5:35:17 AM UTC-4, FAIC Digital Landscape Project wrote: