Searching for a Shared Virtual Workspace?
In my coaching practice, I am increasingly looking for ways to work with my clients on shared documents and projects online. I am looking to online solutions for two reasons:
- It allows my client and me to access documents and work on them collaboratively at any time. My clients are busy people who need the flexibility to work on their own schedules.
- My practice includes long-distance coaching using telephone, IM (Instant Messaging) etc. When we need to work on or exchange documents, PDF, email, and fax are ineffective tools.
We want to be able to set up an online workspace to work on documents and projects in one place. We must be able to:
- Post and edit documents online;
- Automatically sync our calendars (esp. Outlook), with online calendars and visa versa;
- Merge online calendars into group calendars to see at a glance when every individual is busy/free;
- Post discussion threads;
- Receive email or SMS (‘text’) alerts whenever any of the first three functions (documents, calendars, discussion threads) have been changed or added to by group members.
Pretty simple right? You’d think so. I went to the first two places that I knew offered some or all of these services: Google & Microsoft. Big disappointment.
Google Groups
The Good News
It’s free. That’s hard to beat. And Google has two other strengths as a place to get work done: a) it is fully web-based, and b) there is a wealth of various tools.
Being web-based means that not only can you store and view documents, discussions, and calendars, but they can also all be edited and shared right in the browser. No client of any kind required on your computer (other than a web browser); no need to ever download anything unless you want to sync items for work off-line.
A particularly powerful tool is the Forms function available through the Google Spreadsheet. This allows you to create a survey that can be set up in a number of different ways and tie it to a spreadsheet that collects the response data. I have used it several times and love it. It does not have the power and ‘polish’ of some of the dedicated online survey offerings (like those from Constant Contact), but it is secure, flexible, and free. Google Forms has a basic template collection that allows you to set up your survey or questionnaire in a number of attractive ways with minimal design time.
The wealth of tools available on the Google site is truly impressive. Google Groups, Docs, Calendar, Google Talk (IM), Blogger, Picasa, on and on… But that brings me to…
The Bad News
For such a wealth of tools, the lack of integration floored me. Put simply, there is almost NO way of using one tool in an integrated fashion with another. Want to list your shared Google Docs in a Google Group? Can’t do that. Want to sync your Google Calendars to create a shared group calendar within Google Groups? Can’t do that either. Want to embed a Google Docs spreadsheet in a Google Docs document? Nope. The list of what you can’t do goes on and on.
Recommendation:
Use Google if you want a free tool to share work online, but don’t expect much. The lack of integration at this point in the game is frustrating. It is especially odd as Google has on its hands a very powerful collection of individual tools. It makes no sense that they aren’t better integrated.
Windows Office Live
The Good News
Probably the two biggest positives with the Microsoft tools are that a) they are pretty tightly integrated with Microsoft Office (especially Office 2007) and b) there is much more storage space available (5 GB vs. Google’s 100 MB).
If you have an Office Live account, which is free, you can save your Office (Word, Excel, etc.) documents directly to your online workspace. There you can invite others to view and edit them.
There is notification available for most kinds of activity in an Office Live workspace.
The Bad News
While the various tools are more tightly integrated via the copy of Office you have sitting on your computer, the net useability is no greater than the Google offering. The weaknesses fall into three areas:
- Anyone accessing documents on your shared workspace must own a copy of MS Office for full editing and integration functionality. This ‘Microsoft customer only’ restriction is a serious one. There is probably a level of useability with Open Office, but that is still a far cry from the platform independence of Google Documents.
- There is no way to edit online. This means that if you are on the road, you can’t easily get at your documents from an internet café or most smart phones (not that editing Google Documents from a smart phone is any picnic, but at least it can be done).
- The calendar integration is a nightmare. I have spent hours trying to figure out how to set up a calendar on Office Live that syncs with my Outlook calendar. Not only does that not work, it took me forever to find where my calendar does go when I ‘publish’ it online (it goes to a site with the address starting calendars.office.microsoft.com, which is not linked to from the rest of the Office Live site that I can find). And you can’t sync two ways. You can only sync your online calendar to Outlook, not the other way around. That is a serious limitation for a ‘live’ group workspace.
- Another weakness is the confused relationship between Windows Live, Office Live, and Office Live Small Business. Oh wait – there’s also Microsoft Groove! The distinction between these offerings is unclear, and there doesn’t seem to be any integration between Windows Live (things like Messenger) and Office Live. Further, the distinction between the different ‘Lives’ is unclear. At least in Google, what exactly each tool is for is clear, even if they don’t play well together.
Conclusion?
The tool I want does not exist. Given the huge number of players in this field, and the explosion of interest in virtual, collaborative learning and working, I’m surprised. I looked at some for-pay sites as well, like Central Desktop. This certainly does the job better than either Microsoft or Google, but still doesn’t do some of the basic functions (like syncing and merging multiple calendars). Considering that Central Desktop charges a fee I would expect it to have serious bells and whistles. Not so. I am assuming that somewhere out there, living inside some high-end intranet, there is a proprietary tool that does this, but it certainly isn’t available to the rest of us.
So what’s the conclusion? We have to use separate tools to cobble together a collaborative virtual work space: Microsoft has pretty good Office integration (with the glaring exception of the Outlook Calendar), Google has lots of good separate sharing tools, Tungle does a fantastic group calendar, Central Desktop does a decent job but charges.
If I had to pick one system, Google’s is probably the closest. Google is pretty good at syncing calendars in ways that you can share, at hosting blogs, storing and editing documents right in the HTML/Web environment, and providing a very basic shared space in Google Groups. No other site offers all of these “in one place”. But then that’s the biggest frustration with Google, their’s isn’t ‘in one place’ either. You have to hop from Calendar to Docs to Blogger to Groups and back again to get a sense of what your group is up to. How a site could house all of these tools separately and not bring them together in one interface is a complete mystery to me. They even have the interface already – set up a tabbed version of iGoogle and see what I mean!
Google isn’t resting (or rather sitting) on its laurels. There is a new sharing project in early development called Google Wave that allows users to share ideas, files, documents, video and audio in real time (think IM) and asynchronously (think ‘posting’). Now if they could integrate a real group calendar function, and fully editable Google Docs into that, we may be getting somewhere!
I am really looking forward to reading other’s solutions in the quest for shared virtual workspaces.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Clemens Rettich
Clemens Rettich is a coach supporting business and leadership clients on Vancouver Island. With a degree in music and an MBA in Executive Management, and careers from artistic director to international marketing, Clemens brings a rich web of experience and passions to his work. Check out his web site at clemensrettich.com.
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Comments
Aidee says on November 12th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Have you tried the Zoho suite of apps? I dont use it but its worth a look. Similar to the Google setup (mail,docs, notebooks) but maybe this will have what youre looking for.
Clemens Rettich says on November 12th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Thank you Aidee. I had a look and it looks like a solid but limited document sharing/storage site. I do like the integrated chat and mail functions.
Clemens
Tami says on November 12th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
For a similar (but not quite as expansive) problem, we ended up with the same solution – google docs, with very strict “rules” for the participants, so that it didn’t get out of hand as often.
Have you tried 37signals? Their larger collaborative apps require cashmoneys, which we weren’t interested in, but it might work for what you’re looking for.
http://basecamphq.com/
Mike Munsil says on November 12th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I make my own by using Dokuwiki.
Insisting on tight integration with MS’s apps just leads to restricting what you can do.
Clemens Rettich says on November 12th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Tami. Thank you for the read and the comment. I had a look at 37 Signals and Basecamp at your recommendation and it does look good. Its lack of a full calendar function and the fact it does charge are problems, but I like the look of it and the significant plug-in support.
Clemens Rettich says on November 12th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Mike, thank you for the contribution. I had a look at the Wiki tools after your recommendation. The one that really looks like an excellent fit is TWiki. I don’t have experience setting one of these up, and it looks like a significant time committment, which is a major factor. I very much liked the open-source aspect, and the plug-ins. If an organization had the time, I could certainly see how powerful this could be.
Steve Ireland says on November 12th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Hi Clemens,
I’m a long-time reader and wouldn’t normally chime in like so, but this particular topic hits close to home so pls excuse any bias.
I don’t know of a particular system that meets all of your requirements, but we have many clients who offer consulting, coaching and VA services that often circle back and tell us they “can’t live without” http://norada.com and perhaps others might also find it different enough to be interesting and helpful.
Solve360 uses a “client facing” approach to manage interactions with people and projects, it creates “context” for information (no folders!) and is easy for the average Joe to use without pulling their hair out. Pundits often don’t get it…e.g. why is the calendar tucked under the activities dashboard?! But for those managing a team with real client engagements and coordination issues front-of-mind it comes together quickly. As we say the more you look the better we look :)
Unlike many collaboration tools we’re not looking to “fix a $1,000 data sharing / syncing problem”, we’re working to fundamentally help teams improve their client interactions to capture an extra $500,000 of business…I hope that model makes sense.
Like most businesses we charge for our stuff so we can keep the love flowing. Our clients have high expectations wrt quality, data security, support, professional services. All business no consumer. The Internet might connect us but it does not define us ;)
Frank de Mol says on November 12th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
We encountered the same problem and solved it with the combination of:
Google apps (mail, calendar and talk)
open office (word, excell, powerp. etc.)
and syncplicity.com (map and doc syncing)
All of them are free.
Mohamed El-Kholy says on November 13th, 2009 at 5:05 am
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/awdtools/rtc/
Clemens Rettich says on November 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Thank you for adding to the resources Steve! I had a look at Solve360, and really liked what I saw. The pricing is absolutely reasonable, and the features look complete. I am going to spend some time and take a closer look. Nicely done.
Clemens Rettich says on November 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Frank, we are currently working with a similar solution. Google, Open Office, and Tungle, an organizational/meeting calendar solution that I like. Thank you for commenting. I’ll have a look at syncplicity.
dyno says on November 13th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Tonido workspace can solve your problem to most extent. You might want to check it out when you have time.
Hubert R. says on November 13th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Hello Clemens,
I have just started to use Huddle which I have known for some time now.
* Unlimited users: Invite as many people as you need.
* Discussions: Don’t ‘reply all’. Use Discussion forums to brainstorm ideas.
* Document creation: Create and edit Word and Excel documents online.
* Storage: Store, share and manage files.
* Project alerts and notifications: Assign tasks, auto reminders and iCal integration.
* Whiteboards: wiki, share ideas, comments
* Document management: Automated versioning, audit trails and approval workflows.
* Notifications: Via dashboard, email, and RSS.
Their developers are very reactive and the tool is improved. Have a look and try by yourself.
Chris Goodrich says on November 13th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Clemens,
Thank you for evaluating and including Central Desktop in this post. The “virtual workspace” is a very common problem that many of our customers come to us trying to solve.
You mentioned in your post that Central Desktop lacks some of the “basic functions” like calendar syncing. Central Desktop does actually have this ability. We have an Outlook plug-in that syncs your Outlook calendar and your tasks. You can read more about Central Desktop’s Outlook plug-in here: http://cdblog.centraldesktop.c.....lugin.html
Additionally, calendars in Central Desktop are built along two dimensions; personal calendars and workspace calendars. Any task/milestone/meeting item that is assigned to you on a workspace calendar is placed on your personal calendar. Availability of workspace members is easily obtained by viewing each member’s calendar individually. I see how a “merged view” of all workspace members might be helpful for a small team, but for larger teams a “merged view” isn’t practical and thus we have allowed for you to view individual calendars. These individual calendars allow you to see the availability of a team member’s personal calendar with personal items (items in which you do not have rights to see) as busy/free time slots.
If you still have questions or concerns you (or anybody else) have, please feel free to contact me directly at cgoodrich[at]centraldesktop.com and I would be happy to discuss it with you.
Chris Goodrich
Central Desktop
Clemens Rettich says on November 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thank you Dyno. You are right. This is a very interesting service. Of the services I have looked at this is the first one I have seen that takes the modular, out-of-the-box, look and feel of some of the cloud workspaces and puts it on a local web server. It looks elegant and functional. And they even sell the server. Without having spent too much time under the hood, it looks good.
Clemens Rettich says on November 14th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Hubert, thank you for the read and the comment. I had a look at Huddle on your recommendation and I was impressed. It does seem to fit most of the requirements I set up. I am starting to see that after the responses to my article have settled down, I have a job ahead of me to broaden the scope and write another article comparing 4 or 5 of the suggested services. Lots of work, but could be really useful.
Clemens Rettich says on November 14th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Chris, thank you for bringin Central Desktop to the table the way you did. I have looked a bit deeper under the hood and found that by looking at Project Reports under the Dashboard it looks like it is possible to see where everyone is at at a glance. A slightly circuitous way to get there, but does the job.
The statement I made about syncing was that in CD you couldn’t sync *and* merge a group of calendars. I take your point that with large groups that would yeild an unreadable calendar in certain views (month at a time in calendar rather than list format, for example).
Central Desktop certainly solves a number of problems elegantly. I have come back to it two or three times for closer looks, so something keeps drawing me back! I have two projects coming up for which I may take it for a ‘live’ spin and see how it fits.
I’ll report back!
Chris Goodrich says on November 15th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Clemens,
We are constantly looking for suggestions and ways to improve our product so I would be very happy to hear about any limitations that you find with your test run.
If you have any questions while setting up your projects, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Chris Goodrich
Central Desktop
Asua Haraa says on November 15th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Well i am far from being a MS (AKA M$) fan but their MS Groove is exactly what you are looking for..
Ye.. it’s pricey , but does just what you need, has both local and shared storage, it;s encrypted, give you an alert when ever Document is being changed, you can even sync a complete folder..
It has built in IM very comfortable.
Clemens Rettich says on November 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Asua, thank you for bringing me back to Groove for another look. I do like the look and feel of it and hope that Google Wave will move that way as well…
That said, Groove has two serious flaws as a solution for collaborative workspaces for my clients:
1. In order to be able to use it, I have to expect my clients to have the Groove client. It is important to remember where I started this discussion, from a business coaching perspective, not from a one-organization operations perspective. If I were wanting to collaborate with my own employees and partners I could mandate Groove as the client of choice. I don’t have that option when I try to find solutions for working with my clients long distance. HTML or at the very least Open Office-type client-independence is non-negotiable.
2. A small thing, but still a deal-breaker for me: the calendar sync only goes one way: Groove > Outlook. This means either adopting Groove as my primary calendar (which I can’t do as I use Outlook calendar for so many other tracking functions) or entering all events into Outlook and Groove seperately. That won’t work.
So the basic idea of a light client like this that covers so many of the document/schedule/IM services, is one that is headed in the right direction. But it’s not there yet.
Milind Pansare says on November 16th, 2009 at 4:05 am
Clemens,
Thanks for mentioning TWiki. Besides the open source TWiki project, we also offer a ready to deploy enterprise edition that includes enterprise social networking, added applications and is available either onSite or on our hosted SaaS offering. http://twiki.net
Milind Pansare
Twiki, Inc.
Don Barry says on November 16th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Don’t forget that in addition to the commercialized and stagnant TWiki project, the coding continues in the best free software tradition under the name Foswiki. That’s where the coders are. Easy realtime IRC help from an active community, lots of plugins and enthusiasm.
Frits Willem Bakker says on November 17th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Clemens,
I am founder of Coachi.com, a Dutch start-up. Coachi offers a webbased tool based on the vision that a coachee owns and drives his own development/ambition. Coachi offers an e-space in which one’s development is driven and monitored whilst being coached by the coach of choice like yourself. To enable the coaching we have integrated communication ie Skype, forum, chat and Wiki and you can upload and edit any thinkable file standard, be it written, film, foto or website. In 6 months we have built a customer base of coaches from all parts of society be it business, independant, sports, healthcare and education. We are in process of translation to English. End of this year we will roll-out globally. Would you like to be kept up2date?
Randy says on November 18th, 2009 at 1:29 am
You might want to check out wiggio.com
Megamanic says on November 18th, 2009 at 5:05 am
I think you need to look at Google Wave. http://completewaveguide.com/
It’s quite astonishing once you “get” it.
izmir şömine says on November 21st, 2009 at 7:29 am
thanks very nice idea and article
LaptoTraveller says on December 7th, 2009 at 4:09 am
google wave is popular recently…. you guys might want to check it out. pretty amazing and great tool for group working
Kevin Tea says on January 5th, 2010 at 6:07 am
There are a number of emerging tools that you may wish to look at including HperOffice, WizeHive and DeskAway, all of which may help you achieve group working.
Ranga says on January 24th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
I guess you dont know about Adobe Buzzword. Its excellent. I’m using for online collaboration: shared documents, spreadsheets, presentations, AND live meeting with 13 people at the same time.
Vehicle trackers says on February 2nd, 2010 at 3:11 am
Wow interesting, shared “virtual workspace”, is it really a workspace, anyway?