Not everyone has embraced the plethora of web apps that made online collaboration what it is today. Part of this may have to do with the fact that traditional collaboration is working well for the team, as well as the reluctance to adapt to new ways. Most of us, especially those working in a corporate environment, are used to boardroom meetings and conference calls. These tried and tested techniques have their place in the business world, but sometimes, adapting new technologies into our work process makes it more efficient.

If you’ve done your research and discovered that online collaboration will increase your team’s productivity, what do you do if your team is reluctant to adapt? More importantly, how do you make it a less bumpy transition for everyone involved?

One way to start is by showing them your research. It helps to produce estimated numbers on how much time or money online collaboration will save you. Don’t use any Web 2.0 jargon as this might intimidate them further. After all, you’re supposed to make them comfortable with the idea of online collaboration. If you can find some case studies of actual teams that already reaped the benefits of online collaboration, include and refer to them in your proposal.

Make the transition slowly. Instead of moving all collaboration online in one giant step, take small steps with your team by starting with the smallest tasks or projects first. A step-by-step move to web collaboration allows your team to adapt better, and even to give suggestions along the way to improve the workflow. This helps you work out small kinks in your system as you go along, which is preferable to making corrections only when all of your projects have moved online.

Look for collaboration tools that aren’t too different from current software you’re using. People are less hesitant to accept new things if there’s some amount of familiarity. Choose collaboration tools that have a similar interface with software that they’re used to working with. This way, using the new tools will feel more intuitive for your team. If it’s possible, find ways for their new and old tools to sync, but lessen your team’s dependency on these syncing features as time progresses.

Offer your team some training resources that show them how to use their new tools. Whether it’s a video tutorial or a one-on-one teaching session, take the time to show them the features of their collaboration tools. While you’re taking the tools for a spin, tell them the actual benefits of each feature. For example, don’t just say “Google Docs allows you to share files with your other teammates.” Try adding something like “This means that there will be less emailing back-and-forth from everyone when we’re editing a report. There will be less clutter on your email inbox and hard drive.” This shows your team what a particular feature means for them. It’s very specific and it shows that you had their best interests in mind when proposing the switch to online collaboration.

It also helps if you let your team know that the switch to online collaboration is reversible. Tell them “Let’s try it for a month, and if it doesn’t work out we can go back to the way we were doing things.” You’ll find that when they see the benefits of online collaboration themselves, it’s much easier to convince them to integrate it with their regular work process. Just make sure you can quantify when something doesn’t work out - whether it’s an efficiency rating, or money and time savings. Your basis of what works and what doesn’t has to be measurable, not just based on perception.

By implementing the tips above, it will be easier for your team to accept online collaboration as part of their working lives. If it’s done right, they’ll probably even wonder how they were able to work without these tools in the past.

Image by Mark Robinson  from sxc.hu

Pimp Your Work

If you often find yourself with ruffled feathers when dealing with collaborative works, then you might want to check out SpiceBird.

SpiceBird is an application that combines Instant Messaging, Email, Calendar and Task Management – applications essential for collaborating – under one application. Setting up is a quick, smooth and simple process. Once you have it up and running, you will be prompted to setup your mail and instant messaging accounts.

The interface is clean and quite easy to grasp. The instant messaging function is quite limiting, allowing only Gmail and Jabber accounts to be used.

The mail function features instant setup for Gmail accounts and, though it doesn’t offer automatic settings for other email services such as Yahoo Mail, you can manually add other email accounts.

The calendar tab offers multiple views: daily, weekly, and monthly and adding tasks and events on it is a simple point-and-click chore. SpiceBird also offers a built-in RSS reader that can manage feeds from your favorite sites.

While the current setup of SpiceBird may seem quite paltry, given its beta stage nature, the software shows a lot of potential to be a great tool for better collaboration.

SpiceBird is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista (32-bit) and Intel-based Linux.

Screencapture by Celine Roque from Blue Rabbit Media

Whenever you are doing collaborative work, it is important that every player communicates with each other. To do that, you can simply email each other. Or you can use Basecamp.

Basecamp has improving communications between team members, making it easier to collaborate on a single project. Easy to setup, simple to use and very flexible, Basecamp streamlines the way the team works together.

To start using Basecamp, you just need to sign-up for an account which can be paid or free. There is no time limit on the free plan and you can use it for free as long as you’d like. You will then be provided your own “space” to work on. Once you have an account, it’s time to start on a project.

With the free plan, you get to have 1 active project going only. For the subscription, you can have more than 1 project, depending on what plan you paid for. Video tutorials teaching you how to get going with Basecamp is available to get you started. Creating entries in its many tabs is just a point and click affair. With Basecamp, collaboration just became a whole lot simpler.

Basecamp works on most browsers. Click here to go to the website.

This week online office suite company Zoho announced that they have used Google’s Gears technology and API to give Writer some offline capabilities:

Zoho announced early this morning that they’ve taken the first steps toward making Zoho Writer available as an offline app using the Google Gears tool. Initially the docs saved offline will be read only but full offline functionality is planned. Source: Zoho takes the first step towards offline apps | Office Evolution | ZDNet.com

Call me a skeptic, but I don’t think this is the best way to do the online-offline bit.  I’ve been playing with Zoho Notebook recently and it is by far a better product than Google’s Notebook (more on this in another post) and also installed the apps that put Zoho Writer, Sheet, and Show “on the desktop”.  These desktop versions are really just little browser windows.  Nice actually they give you the feel of an office app, well as long as your connected to the Net that is.

Okay back to the offline capabilities of Writer.  See, I just don’t think Google Gears is the right solution.  It’s still stuck in a browser.  And a web browser wasn’t designed for this.  Heck HTML and such wasn’t designed for this.  We’re just cobbling a lot of heavy JavaScript and other techs to make this all work.  Well, maybe we can do this now because we all have faster connections, faster computers, and more RAM, but that doesn’t make it a good choice.

On the other hand ThinkFree has a Java-based and AJAX-based solution and for the online offline connection, it’s Java.  I think in the long run this is going to be the better decision.

Something for all you Backpack fans…

37Signals relaunched their Backpack service today. The app’s back end code was completely rebuilt from scratch, according to Jason Fried, and the service also got a new UI to match some of 37Signals’ other recently updated products (such as Basecamp). The design still feels very familiar to any 37Signals app user, however. Source: 37Signals Relaunches Backpack Organizational Tool

I have to admit that I haven’t gotten into Backpack much.  I know, shock, gasp, etc.  I’m just into that many web-based tools.  However, given that my laptop is on the fritz and I won’t be getting it back until week after next…

CrossLoop is a simple and easy remote access and control application that I’ve tried and used before…with great results.  I got an e-mail from them this week letting me know that some new features were on the way.  Profy.com beat me to the punch with a review…

So what’s new in this release? First of all, now you can share a file with another user while sharing your desktop. I have not heard of any service providing free file transfer without any limitations in file size or type (you can even transfer folders via CrossLoop as well). Files are transferred by dragging and dropping a file (or multiple files and folders) onto the CrossLoop dialog box. The only possible problem is that CrossLoop does not scan transferred files for viruses - so you will need to scan them yourself when files are received. 

[snip]

If you are already willing to try out this new version or you already use CrossLoop but would like to upgrade it you can use this link (user name: xlbeta, password: filetransfer) and share it with your contacts because otherwise those people using older CrossLoop versions will not be able to use the newly introduced features. The link will expire on Friday (5 p.m. PST) so you need to hurry if you want to participate in this limited release.

Source: CrossLoop Further Enhances Screen Sharing and Online Collaboration

Go and grab the release and give it a shot.  I’ve used CrossLoop successfully to help friends with their machines.  Because it is a small download and fast install, you can get going in just a few minutes.  My experience has been about 5 mins between saying “Download CrossLoop..” and help out.

This new version extends the P2P model with file exchange and can now be used for presentations as well.  I’m going to be installing it on a friend’s mother’s new machine.  I have a feeling that I’m going to need it there.

Just last week the question of whether Facebook could be used as a collaboration tool on the cheap.  Now Zoho has announced that it released a Facebook application to connect to its online office suite:

Also included in the release is a central control panel where users can manage all of their private and shared documents within Facebook. As Raju outlines in a blog post on Monday, Zoho plans to release a similar feature for its regular non-Facebook suite, bringing it closer to its main competitor, Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Google’s application suite has a centralized document management center for individuals and groups. Source: Compiler - Wired Blogs

Is this the last piece of the puzzle then?  Almost.  The one thing still bugging me is the perception that Facebook is for kids.  Maybe Facebook could launch a spin off service, same tools, same architecture, even same accounts, that gives a business-branded or more professional look and feel.  Maybe it’s the whole URL that turns me off.  I don’t know, but while I think Facebook has almost all the elements in place it’s still missing the credibility that it can support business and look “business”.

With all the new social media tools out there, you might wonder if I could use stuff like Ning or even Facebook for business.  Well I guess if Twitter could be for business…, Chris Brogan thinks Facebook might just be the ticket…

Chris Brogan: What if you had a completely turnkey solution for managing multi-threaded interactions with teams? What if this application handled scheduling, status updates, RSS feeds from collaborative blogs, group messaging, 1-to-1 messaging, photo and screen capture sharing, and more? What if it permitted secure group communication for people inside and outside of your company? And what if you didn’t have to convince your IT department to install it?

Sounds powerful, right? Sounds useful.

Facebook Does All This Source: An Unlikely FREE Collaboration Management App - lifehack.org

I’m not so sure.  Okay I think I might have some bias here since Facebook was designed for lighter topics, but link the newcomer Pownce, maybe having your social activities and your business activities in the same site might be helpful, maybe more efficient.  I made that point when writing about Pownce on my own blog last night, but as I reflect on it what if you have business people who you add to your network of friends on Facebook (because you’d have to to collaborate) and they start seeing a side of you that you’d rather them not see.

It becomes, perhaps, a question of boundaries.  Not really if Facebook can be a collaboration tool, I’m sure it could, it’s a question of whether it should be used as one.

What do you think?  Facebook for collaboration?  Twitter for business?  Pownce, really cool only because Kevin Rose is involved?

Should there be business versions of these tools?  You tell me.

Via Twitter, of course this morning, I found out about TwitterMail which lets gives you a special e-mail address that you can use to e-mail in Twitter updates:

How TwitterMail works

When you give us your Twitter credentials we supply you with a TwitterMail email address. For instance abcdef1234@twittermail.com. If you send an email to that address it will be posted to Twitter.com Source: TwitterMail.com - 392 people sent 1500 messages to Twitter!

I did a couple of tests, one from Outlook one from my Blackberry and that’s when it hit me…TwitterMail might be the last piece of the puzzle to Twitter for Business.  I’ve talked a bit about this before and why is e-mail the last mile bit?  Because if you activate Twitter on your cell, you might find yourself with a huge bill, e-mail though … well that’s a one off.  A quick zap and you can tell people you’re on the the way, late, break news to the world.

I’ve been off Twitter for a bit, but I found Twitteroo today and that might get me back into the swing of things.

While the world seemed to be ga-ga over Microsoft Surface, Michael Sampson had some of the best, OMG this could be used for…thoughts I saw:

And … if Surface can work like this … then there’s going to be a huge revision in office desking and tables in the decade ahead. This is a sea-change for the office furniture industry … I wonder how many office furniture manufacturers saw Microsoft as a potential competitor or ally even yesterday? The rules of the game change again … Source: Michael’s Thoughts: The Team Collaboration Possibilities of Microsoft Surface

In talking with other folks I tell you it’s freakin’ amazing.  Once you start the process of imagine if you could… it just goes from there.

I can’t wait to see one in real life…heck I’d love to have one!