SAVE YOUR ENERGY with Collaboration!

  

SAVE YOUR ENERGY!

Strategies in Entreprenuership, Collaboration in Design, and Synergies in Solar Power

Dana Redden of DCR Interiors, along with Gail Ried, author of the Idiots Guide to Low-Cost Start-Ups, Pamela George of Training by George, and Freddy Luster of Inman Solar, will be speaking at the the 2011 National Organization of Minority Architects [ NOMA ] Conference Friday, October 21st @ 10:50 AM on the theme of collaboration.  Collaboration is as critical as ever in the world of Architecture and Design.  Times like these, with the world in transition, are the times history has proven produce the most ingenuity and innovation.  Collaboration also takes place in the business world.  This is especially true of small business.  Most importantly, one must learn the techniques of collaboration, what makes team work - work.  As we touch on the strategies in entreprenuership, collaboration by design, and synergies in solar power, we would like to follow up with a few resources to help put the suggestions in our 2011 NOMA presentation into action.  Below are some programs and applications here to make collaboration easier:

Google Docs

Google Docs is an excellent application for collaboration. You can share documents and spreadsheets and collaborate with your team/clients in real-time. Being a browser-based application – the requirements to get up and running is very minimal. Storing your work online means they’re readily available anywhere with an internet connection. Check out the user examples of Google Docsto gain some ideas on how to use Google Docs.

Stixy

Stixyis a flexible, online “bulletin board”/drawing board. There’s little structure and it’s up to you how you want to use it, so it’s a great whiteboarding application. One of the useful ways to use Stixy is mocking up or wireframing web pages – your team member or clients can then go in and modify the design or post notes on particular aspects of the design.

Project2Manage

Project2Manageis a fully-featured, free, hosted solution for project management and collaboration (similar to Basecamp). You can set up different roles and permissions to limit what each team members see, write in your milestones to show everyone your goals, and be able to manage unlimited projects.

bubbl.us

bubbl.us is a free, web-based application for collaborative brainstorming. You can create beautiful mind maps that you can share with team members. You can save, email, and print your mind maps or even embed them directly onto a web page.

Dabbleboard

Dabbleboardis a robust, online whiteboard that’s easy to use. Use Dabbleboard to create wire frames of your user interface, draw flow charts, and create network diagrams, among other things. You can create Toolkits (a set of reusable drawing objects) or use pre-made Toolkits.

Protonotes

Protonotesis a free annotation widget for your HTML prototypes. All you need to do is plop in a JavaScript onto your web page and voila – it just works. Usability testing, design critiquing, and quality-assurance testing are just some of the things that you can use Protonotes on. To get alerted when a new note has been posted, you can subscribe to your team’s notes RSS feed. You can export your data (your “protonotes”) as a CSV file which can be opened by spreadsheet applications like Google Spreadsheetsor Excel or even use your own MySQL database to store your data.

ProjectPier

ProjectPieris a self-hosted, open-source, PHP-based project management application. Manage your tasks, team members, and projects under one interface. The interface is very simple and lacks the “whiz-bang” features of other solutions, but its does project management and collaboration quite well. If you need more convincing, read the 10 reasons for using ProjectPier straight from the creators.

Twiddla

Twiddlatouts itself as a free, web-based meeting playground. Twiddla is an exceptional, no-hassle whiteboard solution for collaborating online. You can browse websites and draw on them, share files, and chat with your team. There’s even an “audio” option so you can communicate verbally (great for people who don’t draw well). Whether you’re critiquing a design or surfing the web for design inspiration, you’ll definitely find a use for Twiddla.

Wetpaint

Wetpaintis a freeform collaboration application that brings in features from wikis, blogs, forums, and social networks. Because it’s simple to use and requires no technical expertise, it’s an excellent platform for generating content from different sources which you can use “as-is” or on your website.

Skype

If you’ve been a web worker for a significant period of time, there’s little chance that Skypehas evaded you. In case you haven’t heard of it, Skype is an application that allows you to make telephone calls over the internet (the technology is called Voice over Internet Protocol– or VoIP). You can make free calls to other Skype users and toll-free numbers, and even landlines/cell phones for a small fee. Aside from its VoIP feature, there are also built-in features for instant messaging (IM), video conferencing, and file sharing.

Thinkature

Thinkature is an excellent, free web collaboration tool. You’re given a workspace to help you visually communicate via chat, drawing, or grabbing content from around the web. Its flexibility allows you to dictate how you want to use it.

Spicebird

If you want to manage projects using a desktop application to conduct your remote/web-based collaboration, check out Spicebird – a robust, open-source platform for all your collaboration requirements. It has a built-in instant messaging chat system, a group calendar, an address book to place your team’s contact information, and much more. View the video demonstrationto get a feel for what Spicebird is all about.

Mindquarry DO

Mindquarry DOis an open-source collaboration application written in Java (J2EE). They’ve discontinued the Mindquarry GO which used to be an online version of Mindquarry, but Mindquarry DO is still available for download. Check out the requirements specificationsto make sure your server has what it needs to run Mindquarry.

Vyew

Vyewis a web-based conferencing application that’s free to use for up to 20 participants. You can share your desktops, use the built-in screen capture tool to save sessions, customize your Vyew by adding your company logo, utilize useful plug-ins like DiagramVyew to create diagrams to share with everyone, and much more.

Writeboard

Writeboardby 37 Signals is a simple, web-based collaborative writing solution that’s free and easy to use. You start by creating your own Writeboard, invite your team members (if you want to collaborate), and then just start writing. People can see updates, edits, and changes in real-time. You can save, track revisions, create versions, and roll back to previous versions of your Writeboard.

What’s your web-based collaboration tool?