What are some good idea sharing/collaboration tools?
February 25, 2010 8:40 AM Subscribe
I'm looking for workplace collaboration tools. I'm NOT looking for IM clients or social networking tools. What I'm looking for is a way to list and present ideas in a systematic fashion, perhaps with uploaded docs, that have accompanying threads people can discuss the idea and create actionable items or goals out of the discussion.
To explain further, I'm working in a small manufacturing company. The pace is fast and there's a lot of meticulous complexity going on. With everyone intent on their own projects, and with the limited time available to share ideas and concepts, some kind of tool to enhance these types of conversations would be very helpful.
Basically I'm thinking of some kind of hierarchical mind map/tree view/overview for broad subjects that people can edit, add to or whatever. Then drill down to a particular concept/project, and converse on that subject, start threads or add to the thread, add documents etc.
Basically, I'm looking for a way that I can put my ideas out there in some fashion so the people who are potentially involved in the execution of that idea can contribute, examine the thread, add to it and some actions taken as a result. Perhaps some form of email update notifications allowed.
Multi-user with permissions. No budget for paying for this service, so free open source or online.
If there's some kind of goal or action tracking attached, that's great but discussion and shared idea collaboration is the main need.
To explain further, I'm working in a small manufacturing company. The pace is fast and there's a lot of meticulous complexity going on. With everyone intent on their own projects, and with the limited time available to share ideas and concepts, some kind of tool to enhance these types of conversations would be very helpful.
Basically I'm thinking of some kind of hierarchical mind map/tree view/overview for broad subjects that people can edit, add to or whatever. Then drill down to a particular concept/project, and converse on that subject, start threads or add to the thread, add documents etc.
Basically, I'm looking for a way that I can put my ideas out there in some fashion so the people who are potentially involved in the execution of that idea can contribute, examine the thread, add to it and some actions taken as a result. Perhaps some form of email update notifications allowed.
Multi-user with permissions. No budget for paying for this service, so free open source or online.
If there's some kind of goal or action tracking attached, that's great but discussion and shared idea collaboration is the main need.
sounds like you might like google wave or google sites.
posted by maulik at 8:45 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by maulik at 8:45 AM on February 25, 2010
This sounds exactly like the one thing that google wave is good for.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:45 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by craven_morhead at 8:45 AM on February 25, 2010
What about a wiki? There are lots of free ones out there.
posted by shothotbot at 8:51 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by shothotbot at 8:51 AM on February 25, 2010
I would also suggest google wave, but you've got to have people that are willing to learn how to use it.
An alternative could be a private php bulletin board, perhaps installed on a subdomain on your website. This would do everything you're asking for, and there are several free ones, phpbb being pretty ubiquitous.
posted by fontophilic at 9:16 AM on February 25, 2010
An alternative could be a private php bulletin board, perhaps installed on a subdomain on your website. This would do everything you're asking for, and there are several free ones, phpbb being pretty ubiquitous.
posted by fontophilic at 9:16 AM on February 25, 2010
I like Open Atrium. It's an open source application based on the Drupal Content Management System and does a really nice job of letting you create these little collaboration spaces. It's all the things I wished BaseCamp was.
I'm also playing around with Alfresco. The Share feature has similar functionality but also pulls in a ton of other features like SharePoint protocol and document revisions. Alfresco has the Community Edition released as Open Source, but it's a pretty hefty app and should really be run on its own server.
posted by advicepig at 9:17 AM on February 25, 2010
I'm also playing around with Alfresco. The Share feature has similar functionality but also pulls in a ton of other features like SharePoint protocol and document revisions. Alfresco has the Community Edition released as Open Source, but it's a pretty hefty app and should really be run on its own server.
posted by advicepig at 9:17 AM on February 25, 2010
This list might be a little dated but is a nice overview of a lot of different tools that get at this sort of thing. (I think I got it from AskMe originally.)
posted by yarrow at 9:47 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by yarrow at 9:47 AM on February 25, 2010
No budget is tough. Companies like Spigit and BrightIdea and Jive might work, but are spendy.
Reddit is open source and might work for this purpose. Seconding some sort of free wiki or bb software. IdeaScale has a ranker, but you have to pay to make it private.
At most places, the problem isn't the technology, it's setting up the cultural norms and management expectations to take time away from "doing your job" to share with colleagues.
posted by troyer at 9:56 AM on February 25, 2010
Reddit is open source and might work for this purpose. Seconding some sort of free wiki or bb software. IdeaScale has a ranker, but you have to pay to make it private.
At most places, the problem isn't the technology, it's setting up the cultural norms and management expectations to take time away from "doing your job" to share with colleagues.
posted by troyer at 9:56 AM on February 25, 2010
hmm i know of a pay program. Called Sharepoint. IF you are a non profit or library you can go to tech soup and get a huge discount on it. (i am talking anywhere from $4 to $100, thats in what you pay for it.).
posted by majortom1981 at 10:39 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by majortom1981 at 10:39 AM on February 25, 2010
The Alfresco project I mentioned above is a really good SharePoint replacement/clone/whatever.
posted by advicepig at 11:19 AM on February 25, 2010
posted by advicepig at 11:19 AM on February 25, 2010
I second Google wave and Google products. Wave is not really for social networking and allows for everything you're asking.
posted by medea42 at 12:26 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by medea42 at 12:26 PM on February 25, 2010
I prefer MediaWiki for this sort of thing.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:30 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 12:30 PM on February 25, 2010
Response by poster: Okay, thanks for all these great avenues to check out. Google wave looks very interesting as a starting point.
posted by diode at 2:41 PM on February 25, 2010
posted by diode at 2:41 PM on February 25, 2010
Apparently I have to look at wave..
Without looking at wave my recommendation would be redmine. The site doesn't look like much but the program is very powerful. Normally it is an evironment for cooperatively developing software but it is very useful for a lot of other applications.
You can define projects and those projects can have subprojects. A project can have a wiki, forums, news , a roadmap, documents and files. And of course the ticket system which incorporates comments and a calendar which lets you set deadlines and can show things in a Gantt diagram.
You can define several roles with different privileges and it is very easy to integrate it with Active Directory even when hosting on unix so that users can use their usual password.
posted by mmkhd at 2:52 PM on February 25, 2010
Without looking at wave my recommendation would be redmine. The site doesn't look like much but the program is very powerful. Normally it is an evironment for cooperatively developing software but it is very useful for a lot of other applications.
You can define projects and those projects can have subprojects. A project can have a wiki, forums, news , a roadmap, documents and files. And of course the ticket system which incorporates comments and a calendar which lets you set deadlines and can show things in a Gantt diagram.
You can define several roles with different privileges and it is very easy to integrate it with Active Directory even when hosting on unix so that users can use their usual password.
posted by mmkhd at 2:52 PM on February 25, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dfriedman at 8:44 AM on February 25, 2010