Betsy 5/18/08

Product Reviews are hard to find... there are many sites out there that just collect what people say, and there are many people out there saying nothing useful..

Sites voting on web office tools:

• blogg on Office 2.0 conference  BEST
• Listio - lets the public vote
• PC World http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144714/collaborate_using_online_tools.html  NEW
• CNET had no reviews.
• About.com review (i've never figured out the authority behind about.com...)

Definition of Groupware of course it is from 06 but it is nice to see something outside of class. Key features:

 data storage and management functionality, and communication enablement features

From an email from Josh in April:

Some things that Danny stated about houw you select team space tools, keep in mind several characteristics of effective team spaces (which the tool developers did not necessarily keep in mind):

• Does the space have a shared data repository?  Does it have versioning?  Is there sufficient capacity for your team needs?
• Does the space provide meeting/task reminders to participants?  Via email?  Via SMS?
• Does the space track the status to tasks and assignments?
• Does the space provide notification tools?  Via email?  Via SMS?
• Does the space provide for non-volatile discussions?
• Does the space work on YOUR platform?
• Does the space work through firewalls (at your office)?
• Does the space play well with other software you run?

The wiki does meet some of these requirements, but if you look at the list of tools that he has on that page and the requirements a wiki kind of falls short. It does not have version control, good access control, reminders, tool for tracking status of tasks and assignments, or a calendar. Well anyway just my 2 cents. 

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