The Internet has opened new opportunities for collaboration between people and organisations located almost anywhere in the world.
Among many examples of this new, participative way of working are the tools built to develop Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). By FOSS, we mean software such as the GNU/Linux operating system and the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, among a host of other examples, which are freely distributed under the terms of Open Source licences.
Freely-available on-line collaboration tools include:
Some collaboration systems combine several of the above tools in one package. In addition, the collaboration tools may be remotetely hosted or hosted on your own organisation's servers. Taking advantage of these tools for your organisation requires careful choice of appropriate software, combined with helpful documentation and training.
A wiki is a particular type of website with pages that are easily edited. Perhaps the best-known wiki is Wikipedia, the on-line encycolpedia that can be edited by anyone.
We have extensive experience of MediaWiki, the system used to build Wikpedia, through our participation in Schoolorge-UK. Other popular free wiki systems written in different programming languages are MoinMoin and UseMod.
Email has transformed the way we communicate via. writtem notes and memos, and mailing lists have extended this medium into the realm of discussions.
Until recently, newcomers to a mailing list discussion have been at a disadvantage through not having easy access to a readily searched archive of discussion posts. Services such as GoogleGroups can provide both easy searching as well as facilities for list management facilities.
Online repositories are used to store and track changes in the latest version of the digitised product being worked on, and they are often used to store for documentation. Two widely used repository systems are CVS and Subversion.
A wide range of software is available to enable teams to share their activity calendars and contact lists.
On-line forums are particularly useful for providing support and building a community around a particular product, where users can share their experiences and provide helpful advice to each other.
Weblogs are useful for mainitining a log of events, for example during product development. Many weblog systems are combined with a facility for recording comments and feedback.
On-line chat systems such as MSN Chat, IRC, AOL, etc. have long been popular with the younger generation, because they an excellent low-cost way for a very small number of people (preferably two) to hold a discussion by typing and responding to messages in real time.
If more that two pepole are involved, a certain amount of skill is needed to keep messages short to ensure the discussion "stays on track".
The quality of telephony systems provided over the Internet ("VoIP") has rapidly imporved in recent years, making this an ideal and low-cost way of making long-distance calls. Facilities for conference calls are also available.
It is now possible to attach a low-power radio base station to a computer, so that participants in the conversation no longer need to be "wired" to their workstation.