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Slogan: Travel is a luxury, communication is not. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is a web conferencing solution. The full capabilities of Adobe's Acrobat Connect Pro software allows hosting of instant, collaborative meetings with hundreds of participants using only a web browser and Adobe Flash Player. (Adobe, 2009) Some of the features are: * Secure sharing of desktops, documents and presentations. * Control over access to online meetings. * Instant communicate and collaborate. * Online meeting rooms. * Video and audio * Screen-sharing * Text and chat (Adobe, 2009) Clemson University (USA) chose Adobe's Acrobat Connect Pro to accommodate the needs of graduate students who couldn't always attend their classes in person. The university decided on Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, partly because it was easy to scale as and needs and resources allowed or dictated. (Dawson, 2009) Adobe's Acrobat Connect Pro conferencing solution encompasses a comprehensive set of tools that have satisfied a variety of needs for both on and off campus students and tutors. IT support staff, teachers and students frequently use the system for troubleshooting and learning support. The use of video conferencing has significantly reduced travel expenses for the faculty. (Dawson, 2009) Designed to protect meeting spaces from security threats, one of Connect Pro's greatest assets is the end-to-end encryption provided by password strength optimisers that require user authentication both for presenters and attendees alike. Hosts and presenters can control all levels of attendee access, from media files to voice privileges. In addition, Adobe Connect Pro provides features to enable the keeping of full logs of meetings and the functionality to audit logs for potentially malicious use or data corruption. (TopTenReviews, 2010) References below - in comment

Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro If your students/employees have a web browser and Adobe Flash Player then Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is an e-learning tool that may have value in their education, training and conferencing needs [1]. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro has three main streams of use and several key features: 1. Web Conferencing a. Delivery through any web browser that doesn't require extra software downloads. b. Worldwide connection of distributed teams c. Synchronous viewing by all participants. d. Custom URL for consistency. e. Works with multiple audio platforms f. Facility to record meetings g. Customisable interface 2. eLearning a. Content creation can be customised to suit the situation - virtual or self-paced courses. b. Synchronous viewing by all participants c. Customisable templates that can be adapted for reuse. d. Tracking of students progress e. Surveying and polling of students f. Facility to incorporate third-party systems within the existing e-learning tool 3. Web Seminars a. Branding of interface b. Extends your arm of contacts and participants c. Cut costs while increasing your point of contact. d. Manage registrations e. Qualify attendees and send out email notifications. Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is built on the foundation of Flash technology, which is compatible with up to 98% of Internet connected computers. Add to this its ability to function on an extremely low bandwidth, and its user authentication strengths, this makes it an effective, safe and highly accessible application [2]. While Oliver Rist, of Pcmag.com, rates the overall application highly, he does warn that its depth of features can lead to a need for a large learning curve when starting out [3]. Rist also lists the applications main strengths as being within the meeting, or conferencing, component because of its slick and clever interface, which can be customised all while working within the web browser.

[1] Adobe (2010) Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Retrieved on 14th April 2010 from http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/acrobatconnectpro/elearning/ [2] TopTen Revies (2010) Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Retrieved on 14th April 2010 from http://web-conferencing-services.toptenreviews.com/adobe-connect-pro-review.html [3] Rist, Oliver (2008) Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional. Retrieved on 14th April 2010 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279709,00.asp

Transform how your team works, be it the educational sector (teachers and students) or the commercial sector (project teams) by using Adobe's Acrobat Buzzword service. Buzzword is a simple yet powerful multi-user document editing service designed to streamline review processes for simultaneous collaborative report writing. Buzzword, may look and behave like a word processor, but it is a web-based server that runs in Flash giving a high-quality graphical and design interface, full document formatting and 'print-perfect' documents in Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, Rich Text and Open Office [1] and across computing platforms. You can create your document within Buzzword or import an existing one. Eliminate the endless back-and-forward and usually large email responses and attachments and keep control of annotations and versions. Control your document access by making certain people 'co-authors' who can edit and other team members 'reviewers' who can only comment. Each reviewer uses a different colour making it easier to keep tabs on who is annotating and there is a feature that enables you to view who is online and editing a particular document. [1] [2] Enterprise, government and educational sectors have found Buzzword to be an integral part of their collaboration process and claim that since adopting the service, they have 'reduced duplicate input and shortened the time it takes to finalise a document from several days to just hours'. [3] For Acrobat.com subscription pricing, please refer to: https://acrobat.com/pricing.html [1] Adobe Buzzword. Retrieved from URL: http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword [2] Miller, M. (2009). 'Comparing Google Docs with Competing Cloud Computing Applications'. Retrieved from URL: http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p

An outstanding feature of Adobe Buzzword is that it offers a free subscription service for smaller users, through to premium services for larger corporations. For a small business the free subscription would be ideal. As a result Adobe Buzzword can be adapted and used by corporations of any size as well as educational institutes. Some reviews of Adobe Buzzword have been very positive with Michael Klurfield of TECHGEIST saying "Buzzword is easily the best word processing software online right now." He explained that Buzzword does such things as annotations and comments are a lot easier in Buzzword than in Microsoft Word and that the sharing off documents is easy. PC MAG.COM compares uploading of Microsoft Word documents to Buzzword to both Google Docs and Zoho Writer and found that although there were some layout problems it was superior when uploading images. A paper from the 25th Annual Conference on distance Teaching and Learning identified Adobe Buzzword as "we find Adobe's Buzzword to be the best tool for the development of the course" (Staley and Ice, 2009) One of the problems Buzzword overcame for them was the necessity of having to email large documents back and forth and worry about version control. Adobe Buzzword it also incorporates the placement of images into your document and automatically flows the text around them. Its tools allow resizing of images. As with most word processors Buzzword can create bulleted lists and incorporate symbols and numbers. (http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword/) Sobti, (2009) states that "Buzzword differs from most other online document editors in that it is built on Adobe Flash, and which this makes the environment that much more rich" Adobe also has extensive help and demonstration sections for a new user for ease of learning.

References: Adobe - Acrobat.com Documents. (n.d.). Adobe. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.adobe.com/acom/buzzword/ Klurfield, M. (2009, June 16). Adobe Buzzword " Very Cool Online Wordprocessing | Techgeist. Techgeist. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://techgeist.net/2009/06/adobe-buzzword-very-cool-online-wordprocessing/ Mendelson, E. (2008, August 4). Adobe Buzzword beta - Compatibility with Microsoft Word - Reviews by PC Magazine. Technology Product Reviews, News, Prices & Downloads | PCMag.com | PC Magazine . Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2327019,00.asp Sobti, K. (2009, July 24). The ODE Adobe Acrobat Buzzword - Online Best Latest The ODE Adobe Acrobat Buzzword Price Reviews | Features in India. Digit - Thinkdigit Technology Guides | Technology News & Reviews | Free Downloads | Video | Online Tech Support Forums in India. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/The-ODE-Adobe-Acrobat-Buzzword_3231.html Stanley, J., & Ice, P. (2009). Intructional Design Project Managment 2.0: A Model of Development and Practive. 25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, .(2009), .. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/09_19400.pdf

"Work better together on Acrobat.com" [1]. "Adobe has introduced Acrobat.com Workspaces, an extension to its online collaboration service that provides shared workspaces to enable teams to easily share project documents and other files when working on projects" [2]. Adobe is a major player in the field of producing solid software and it seems they too are joining the world of online collaboration by developing Acrobat.com Workspaces and more. Launched in 2009, Acrobat.com lets users "store and share documents, convert files to PDF, share their screen using Adobe ConnectNow, and create documents using online applications such as the Buzzword word processor and Acrobat.com Tables for spreadsheets"[2]. At the moment the paid prescription is available to North American customers only and some other regional Beta versions are available. Although this availability is a weakness, particularly at this stage for Australian clients, Adobe does offer a free alternative for everyone until the Workspaces are available widely. The alternative is a limited, but useful service; "Get an online workspace, five PDF conversions total, three person web conferencing, online office applications and forum-based support" [3]. One of the biggest strength's to the workspaces is the usability of the product and its fresh outlook. The product offers great potential for clients as regardless of what application you use to create a document; Acrobat.com Workspaces includes a PDF conversion which can make the final document industry standard.

References/Notes [1] Adobe - tagline, https://acrobat.com/#l [accessed April 5]. [2] Robinson, D., (2010). Adobe adds shared workspaces to Acrobat.com, http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2260392/adobe-adds-shared-workspaces, V3.co.uk. [3] Acrobat.com Workspaces, https://acrobat.com/#il=1&page=signup_only&su=1 [accessed April 5]. [4] Acrobat.com Mobile Workspaces, https://acrobat.com/features_mobile_access.html [accessed April 5]. [5] Adobe.com Workspace features, https://acrobat.com/features_online_office_applications.html [accessed April 5].

Placeholder interested in this for my work, so I'll comment after further research

Combining a couple of online tools; (Shared workspaces, and Connect Pro) for document collaboration, web conferencing, and eLearning. The days of emailing versions of Word or Power Point documents are gone. Sharing, collaborating, creating, is a 24/7 business and participation is potentially unlimited. The starting point for all groups is, choosing a common platform to work on. Most collaboration sites can be customized, has communication options, provide degrees of third-party partnerships, accommodate file sharing and facilitate storage space. [3] Acrobat.com has the lot and a lot more. Acrobat, as stand-alone software for PDF document creation, with its free distribution of the Acrobat Reader to open these documents, is known across multiple time zones. This is not always the case for other collaboration software. Statistics for users of Facebook show the platform is mostly used in the United States and Canada while orkut (www.orkut.com) is the platform preferred by Brazilians, and hi5 (www.hi5.com) is mostly used in the Caribbean.[3] Acrobat.com rebuts diversity by its international acceptance in the market. Acrobat.com Workspaces and Connect Pro is "The next best thing to meeting in person".

**. Workspaces: Online document collaboration, word processing, PDF conversion, spreadsheets sharing. **. Web conferencing: Private team meetings without the travelling cost. IPhone and iPod touch mobile software also available. This service can be hosted with an annual subscription, on-premise with a software licence or managed by a third-party certified Adobe partner. **. eLearning: Create self-paced courses and media-rich virtual classes. Delivery methods for business training are evolving. Economic fluctuations periodically shift sales strategies for example, a consultative approach to selling changes to a more provocative method in recessionary times. Sales managers often have to retrain staff with little warning. The new generation of the workforce; so called Millennials, tend to be more comfortable with online learning. On-line eLearning in real time is engaging, dynamic and interactive, all promoting highly effective sales training. [5] **. Web seminars: Host live web events and training for staff and customers and partners. With a web browser and Adobe Flash Player, create streaming video, animations and interactive content.[4]

[1] Hanyaloglu, A. (2010) Acrobat.com takes a new step today- Workspaces http://blogs.adobe.com/acom/ [2] http://www.adobe.com/acom/ [3] Hastings, R. (2008) Collaborating across time zones. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/ehost/ [4] Product specifications. Retrieved on 5/4/2010 from: http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/acrobatconnectpro/?promoid=BOZMY [5] Canaday, H. How new eLearning tools cut costs and improve results. White paper . Retrieved on 5/4/2010 from http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/acrobatconnectpro/elearning/ Lowensohn, J. 2009. Retrieved on 7/04/2010 from: http://news.cnet.com

Traction is a relationship marketing tool which organizations can use to manage and keep in contact with customers and prospects. It can build brand awareness and makes it easy to control multiple campaigns [1]. Traction can be synchronized to an existing database to better manage and effectively target customers. It manages email, mobile phones, direct mail and web campaigns in a single platform. Other features of Traction are competitions, promotions, customer surveys and event management [1]. There is also a reporting tool which provides valuable feedback and insights into consumer behaviour. It is important to capture and build your database however it is just as important to gain customer insight and be able to profile customers and communicate successfully. You can continually learn about your customers and prospects and enrich your profile data with each campaign, enabling you to communicate more effectively via any channel [1]. With so much competition it is important to know your customer's needs and to be able to gain customer loyalty to keep them coming back. The value of repeat customers cannot be underestimated when they spend 33% more than new customers and referrals amongst repeat customers are 107% greater than non customers [2]. Relationship marketing will play a big part in understanding your customer visitors, segmentation of customer behaviour and creating content to specifically target your customers are ways in which can add value to organizations [3]. References [1] Traction (2009). Traction - building meaningful customer relationships. Retrieved 11 April 2010 from http://www.traction.com.au/About/Overview.aspx [2] Lake, L. (n.d.). Customer Relationships are key to your marketing strategy. Retrieved 11 April 2010 from http

Traction is a tool designed to manage customer relationships and interactions, and develop stronger marketing campaigns and brand awareness [1]. It has a wide variety of features to leverage customer data into these purposes. Traction has been around since 2001 and continuous development occurs [2]. It is accommodating in offering different versions dependent on your needs. The Enterprise version is fully featured and scalable, whereas the Lite version is suitable for smaller, less complicated marketing solutions. Organisations can also contact Traction direct for a custom solution [2]. Inbound and outgoing customer interactions can be delivered via a range of mediums including email, SMS, and XML [3], providing flexibility of content requirements and interoperability between organisation and client base. Whilst locating reviews on the system proved rather difficult, the Traction homepage professes to a very strong customer base, including a number of extremely well known companies and brands [4]. This in itself suggests stability and a proven product.

References [1] Traction. (2010). Overview. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://www.traction.com.au/About/Overview.aspx [2] Ouvrir. (2010). Traction Platform. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.ouvrir.com.au/traction_platform.html * [3] Schaffer, S. (2006). Traction Offers Complete Marketing Platform. The Pondering Primate. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2006/04/traction-offers-complete-marketing.html [4] Traction. (2010). Homepage. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.tractionplatform.com/home.aspx * This site appears to be a reseller or affiliate of Traction, so bear this in mind when reading its material.

Central Desktop is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) social technology tool that allows global online collaboration between multiple users within organisations. The flexibility of Software-as-a-Service or SaaS for short, is that it allows organisations to rent the use of developed software, without the costs involved in maintaining licensing and continual upgrading to the latest product [5]. Central Desktop offers low cost, scalable SaaS solutions, advanced enterprise security, support, secure online meetings, centralised IT and staff resources and Salesforce.com integration. In 2009, Central Desktop announced Zoho Projects as online spreadsheet partner [2]. Central Desktop offers a range of plans to cater for different industries, with a 30-free trial option. Plans are available as the Workgroup edition, the Enterprise edition and the Community edition. Central Desktop offers risk free, Upgrade Anytime and Cancel Anytime options and no cancellation fees. The upgraded 2.0 version announced in February of 2010, offers wizards, templates with drop-down menus and an online file viewer that is compatible with Microsoft Office, Adobe PDF and Photoshop, JPEG and TIF [3]. YouTube [4] offers an overview of the database features available through Central Desktop. According to Central Desktop it "is a Web-based collaboration software solution that allows users to securely organize, share and communicate from a single online location. With no software or hardware to install, organizations using Central Desktop can increase revenue, maximize productivity and improve project management. Central Desktop offers a full suite of collaboration tools, including wikis, document sharing, Web conferencing, task management and shared calendars. Central Desktop also features a fully integrated micro-blogging tool that allows users to post their status and syndicate their updates out to other social networks like Twitter and Facebook" [1].

Customers of Central Desktop include the Humane Society of the U.S., CBS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Avid Technology, Omniture, InterContinental Hotel Group and the University of Wisconsin-Madison [1]. Central Desktop has received a range of awards and recognition from industry peers since it's founding in 2005. The latest awards received are the 2010 Hot Technology Companies and the 2010 Hot 90 Award - Southern California [1]. References: [1] CentralDesktop (2010). Retrieved April 09, 2010 from http://www.centraldesktop.com/about-press [2] CrunchBase (2010). Retrieved April 09, 2010 from http://www.crunchbase.com/company/central-desktop [3] PcWorld (2010). Retrieved April 09, 2010 from http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/189948/central_desktops_20_upgrade_focuses_on_user_interface.html [4] CentralDesktop overview (2007). Retrieved April 10, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG_ajNsJvqU&feature=related [5] What is SaaS (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2010 from http://www.whatissaas.net/

With 275,000+ customers……"Central Desktop is a heavy-hitter in the online collaboration arena. It's used by companies such as Sony, Adobe, J.D. Power and Associates and Greenpeace…" [1] Benefits of central desktop are: * Does not require you to download any software. It is 100% web based. * Data can be exported from CentralDesktop ®. * Three types of workspace options for teams, the company at large, and external customers. * Avoids the need of using multiple passwords, usernames, and products to share information and collaborate with teams. * 5 different levels of security and protection. * Strong support from customer base that is over 200,000 strong and received a number of awards touting the software. " [2] "Central desktop offers real-time collaboration for your team members. With the web meetings and audio conferencing features you can also collaborate with customers or partners by voice, sharing screens or remote presentation. Central Desktop also integrates with Skype (with voice supported), Yahoo, MSN Messenger, AIM, ICQ and Jabber, centralizing all your communication".[1] "Their next moves include upgrading mobile device support, and providing an enhanced API, as well as increasing the ability to customize for verticals. Recent research has indicated that collaboration will be one of the major growth uses of mobile devices so this is timely. Central Desktop also plans to set up a marketplace where customers can share templates. [3] References: [1] The Mobility Guy http://www.themobilityguy.com/2009/06/27/mini-review-online-collaboration-with-central-desktop/ [accessed April 14, 2010]. [2] Business Services Insider, http://www.businessservicesinsider.com/Web-Conference-Calling-Services/Central-Desktop-Review.html [accessed April 14, 2010]. [3] Appopedia, http://www.theappgap.com/reviews?product=Central+Desktop [accessed April 14, 2010].

Scribblar is a fun, free, multi-user online collaboration tool that is especially effective for online training and brainstorming in an e-learning environment, with the sharing and exchanging of image and text files. Scribblar, developed in 2007, is the brainchild of UK-based muchosmedia.com, providing the online collaboration market with a social interaction tool that acts as a whiteboard with live audio, text-chat etc. Muchosmedia has been recognised by Adobe as global experts in developing Flash applications, serving on Adobe' industry advisory board [5]. Scribblar PRO is also available to users for a fee, allowing the integration of your own logo and customised features onto your website without the hosting and bandwith costs. With instant access to audio, video, live chat and powerful drawing and editing tools, Scribblar PRO can easily be incorporated within any website design with varied access and privilege levels [1]. Mainly, Scribblar is a great, flash-based education tool and has been designed to allow multiple users to interact simultaneously, without interruption. A major feature of Scribblar is the facility to upload an image for enhancing, editing, commenting or collaborating by multiple users, by utilising its drawing, text and sound tools [2]. A review done by a media library specialist, Kathy Pierce [3], highlights the interaction and educational value of integrating Scribblar in schools. For a comprehensive tutorial, visit YouTube [4] for a step-by-step explanation of each tool available on the Scribblar whiteboard for online collaboration. References posted below.

References: [1] Walsh, K. (2009). Online Interactive Whiteboards. EmergingEdTech Retrieved 14 April, 2010, from http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/04/online-interactive-whiteboards/ [2] theDAILYAPP. (2008). Scribblar - Online Collaboration Design Room. Retrieved 14 April, 2010, from http://thedailyapp.com/media/photos/scribblar-online-collaboration-design-room [3] Ferris, B. (2009). Collaborate simply, graphically, with Scribblar. Retrieved 14 April, 2010, from http://blogs.learnnc.org/instructify/2009/10/20/scribblar-collaborate-mindmap-brainstorming/

References: [1] Muchosmedia (2010). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.scribblar.com [2] Free Technology for Teachers (2008). 'Creative Collaboration with Scribblar'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2008/09/creative-collaboration-with-scribblar.html [3] Library Media Musings (2009). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://librarymm.blogspot.com/2009/11/collaborate-online-with-scribblar.html [4] YouTube (2009). 'Scribblar Demo'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZenKhLVRg [5] Haschke Ink (n.d.). 'Muchos Media Content'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://haschkeink.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Muchos_Media.46100818.pdf

Review Basics was created by Sharp Styles Lab and is an online collaboration tool that allows you to annotate and comment on documents, images on videos. Content is secured and password protected so it can only be viewed by people in your organisation that have been invited. You are able to invite as people as you like [1]. Review Basics is a web-based application so you do not need to download any software but Adobe Flash does need to be installed to provide feedback using the simple drag and drop tools. The application can also be used by anyone in your organisation from any location in the world. It supports many file formats and if you find a file format that is currently unsupported, Sharp Styles Lab will do their best to accommodate you. [1]. With Review Basics you can upload draft proposals and invite staff to provide feedback and exchange ideas [1]. It is ideal for organisations that are geographically spread. Even in smaller businesses it can be difficult to organize staff for face-to-face meetings, so collaborating in this way makes discussion much easier and allows everyone to be involved in a decision making process [2]. It also allows for members to think about a proposal more thoroughly before offering feedback or making any comments [3]. [1] Sharp Styles Lab (2010). Review Basics. Retrieved 16 April, 2010, from http://www.reviewbasics.com/Home.aspx?NoCache=592c3049-fe2b-4e16-8e03-bd5d27dd494b [2] Cohen, A.S. (2008). The Collaboration Effect: The Second Wave of the Internet. Retrieved 16 April, 2010, from http://blogs.cisco.com/collaboration/comments/the_collaboration_effect_the_second_wave_of_the_internet/ [3] Cranor, L.F. (1996). Internet Collaboration: Good, Bad, and Downright Ugly. Retrieved 16 April, 2010, from http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds2-3/lorrie.html

ReviewBasics is a free website, that creates a safe and secure online space, where users can upload content and gather feedback about their content. The website is aimed for businesses in "creative and design, opinion research, film and video and legal." (Ruby, 2007) It can be beneficial for businesses that require feedback on projects, bringing comments together in one location. By doing this, it avoids the dilemmas of keeping track of feedback in emails. When a project is set up, users upload one or multiple files, to a total of 25mb per account for reviewing. (Q&A, 2010) Supported files include: * Microsoft Word™ and PowerPoint™ (DOC/DOCX, PPT/PPTX) * Images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF) * Adobe Acrobat (PDF) * Video (FLV, WMV, AVI, MPEG) (Q&A, 2010) Once uploaded, people can be invited to review the content via email invite. With a simple click on the link, the person can be taken to the project where they enter a password provided and begin giving feedback using the tools. Different tools such as the "Callout", similar to a speech bubble, "Arrow", "Emoticon", "Selection" and "Drawing" can be used to give feedback, with a simple drag n' drop onto the page. (Products, 2010) Account holder can limit what feedback, each invited person can see. Once feedback is made, email updates are sent notifying users that comments have been left. This can save businesses time by not waiting for notification by email or phone, and can help complete projects much faster, creating greater efficiency. Anytime during the project or upon completion, an annotated PDF file can be downloaded with all reviews made. This file can be stored and accessed at a later date. (ReviewBasics, 2010) ReviewBasics provides a cost effective collaborative tool that allows project reviews to be saved in one place, creating greater efficiency and helps complete projects faster.

Reference: Products. (2010). Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.sharpstyle.com/ Q&A. (2010). Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.reviewbasics.com/QandA.aspx?NoCache=b22b65c6-80ce-4e4f-81fd-d7ad193c6cc1 ReviewBasics. (2010). Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.reviewbasics.com/Home.aspx?NoCache=c327e07a-ff88-4fc1-be88-2606073523a2 Ruby, B. (2007). A review of ReviewBasics. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://cmsreport.com/blog/2007/review-reviewbasics

ConceptShare is cleverly pursuing like-minded partners at a time when web-based software concepts are becoming exceedingly popular. Partnerships increase the visibility of both parties. **ConceptShare teamed up with Vimeo to create free, basic and advanced tutorials to learn how to use this product prior to purchasing.[1] **Email clients are teamed up to create co-op workspaces by a built in, email system that automatically parse the email list and send invitations to the list members.[1] **Alliance with the Adobe users, multipage PDF documents can be imported which make brochure, instruction pages and other multi-page documents easy to collaborate on. [1] **ConceptShare and Marketbright; a marketing automation platform, teamed up in a mutually beneficial relationship. Creative and marketing professionals can liaise on marketing and advertising campaigns. [1] Retrieved on 5/4/2010 from:http://www.conceptshare.com/tutorials.html [2] Scott , 2010. Marketbright and ConceptShare launch partnership. Retrieved on 5/4/2010 from: http://www.thoughtballoons.net/

Mindjet [5] is best known for its mind mapping software but with the introduction of Catalyst [5] in October 2009 Mindjet released the power of their mapping software to the web. Catalyst is an online mapping tool that is delivered on a subscription service across the web. It enables team members to co-edit a map in real time. Members can brainstorm ideas, design business process, store their documents in a secure and centralised workspace and keep a work log of all changes. Catalyst also augments the support of social networking tools to help share the vision [1]. Currently the service is delivered as a subscription service charged at $25/user/month plus an extra $25 for web conferencing moderators. Catalyst runs on all major browsers [4] but it must have Adobe Flash Player 9.0 enabled. "We think better in picture than text and how that can that be related to business process" Scott Raskin CEO of Mindjet (Howlett, 2009). "Catalyst team members can simultaneously video-conference while modifying a shared document on an online " (Chapman, 2009). While this online collaborative mapping tool is impressive an area of consideration is the fact that it does not alert team members of asynchronous changes [3] via IM or email. Alerting team members of change during a project is an important feature for collaborative tools as discussed in the research study by Daniela Damian M. Sc. [2] which looks at how real projects actually use collaboration tools and what were their main areas of use and importance are. However, with the inclusion of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter this oversight could be overcome with good project management practices.

References [1] Chapman, G. (2009, Oct 8). Mindjet boosts online collaboration with Catalyst. Retrieved April 13, 2010, from Google (AFP): http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jAtF77pDeYcjJL7H5N3Z7ykx4n3w [2] Damian, D. (2010, Feb 1). Case study of feature based awareness in a commercial software team and implications for the design of collaborative tools. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from UVicDSpace: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/dspace/handle/1828/2133 [3] Howlett, D. (2009, October 6). Mindjet takes on Cisco with Catalyst. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=1377 [4] mindjet. (2010). Catalyst - Technical Requirements. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Mindjet: http://www.mindjet.com/products/mindjet-catalyst/requirements [ 5]Mindjet. (2010). Catalyst. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Mindjet: http://www.mindjet.com/products/mindjet-catalyst/overview [6] Mindjet. (2010). Mindjet. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Mindjet: http://www.mindjet.com/

EffectiveUI [1] were an early adopter of the iPad technology and released Ideate [2] as one of the first apps specifically for the iPad [3]. Ideate is a sketching tool that allows people to actually draw or sketch designs by freehand. It also comes with a range of additional templates and User Interfaces such as grids and backgrounds. Templates and Clips that come with Ideate include the following categories: * 3D and Perspective * Human Anatomy * Music Sheets * Grids, Lines and Dots * Fashion Models * Landscaping * Sports Fields * Shapes * Home Interior & Interface Design. Ideate also provides a streamlined integrated system to either share the designs by either emailing or uploading them to the Ideate Flickr Group [4] account. The app comes with a range of templates from fashion models to devices, human anatomy to music and more and it also allows the users to bring in their own images and backgrounds. The convergence of technologies including the iPad, the internet accessibility and the Ideate app bring together a single unique collaborative experience that allows for a shared experience of creativity, design and brain storming. This first release allows only for asynchronous collaboration, however the individual technologies do allow for possible synchronous creative design across the web in the future. Ideate is available from the iTunes app [5] store and is currently retailing for $4.99 (AUD) References/Links [1] http://www.effectiveui.com/index.html#/?env=0&pop=0&f=1 [2] http://www.ideateapp.com/ [3] http://www.apple.com/ipad/ [4] http://www.flickr.com/groups/ideate/ [5] http://i

EffectiveUI, the developers of Ideate, has earned customer loyalty previously by developing groundbreaking software for companies like National Geographic, eBay and the Discovery Channel. It is a recognised Adobe Gold Partner and in September of 2009 ranked No. 55 on the Inc. 500 [1]. With the release of Ideate for the new Apple iPad, the aim was to reach the "different needs for people to better capture and share their ideas", according to Rebecca Flavin the CEO of EffectiveUI [1][4]. Ideate is a useful tool for the collaboration of creative ideas and concepts and with features such as sketching and instant sharing, together with web clips, animation and music, it has the makings of a very effective collaboration tool, ideal for professionals in the medical, designing and sporting fields. Any sketches saved in documents can be shared through email and social applications such as Flickr. Ideate and iPad make an extremely eco-friendly team, as the need for printing designs are eliminated and at a download price for less than $4, it is very cost-effective [2]. Make no mistake though - Ideate is not purely an illustration tool. It does not feature sophisticated brush types,[3] you are still limited by what your fingers can actually draw on the Ipad with the features available.

References: [1] MarketWire (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/EffectiveUI-Unleashes-Creativity-Apple-iPad-Through-Ideate-Sketching-Application-1142177.htm [2] AppShopper (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://appshopper.com/productivity/ideate [3] Patrick Hanson.com 'Ideate Application for iPad' (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.patrickhansen.com/blog/ [4] Nearshore Journal (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.nearshorejournal.com/2010/04/effectiveui-unleashes-creativity-for-the-apple-ipad-through-ideate-sketching-application/

Virtual servers, Cloud computing and Software-as-a-service,(SaaS), are all pioneering new innovative value-adding utilities. Gmail, Hotmail, YouTube, are a few SaaS tools already known to most people, but now the Internet is exploding with collaborative services and applications. With peer pressure from Google's Google docs and other web-based software developers, giant software companies like Microsoft, Adobe, SAP etc are all launching into web-based applications. [1] Microsoft's (Light) Office app will be available for free with Office 2010.[2] Even hardware technology are pointing to "slim-down" operating systems like netbooks that have little data storage capabilities, no moving parts and only connects and rely on the internet [1] CRM, Customer Relations Management and ERP; Enterprise Resource Planning are the most popular applications that companies are taking up as web-collaborative applications. ***Now Engineering design are available in the cloud. SolidWorks CEO, Jeff Ray says the one prevailing advantage to all customers is cost. [4]

[1] Patrick Stafford 2009 How cloud computing could change your business and save you thousands. Retrieved on 4/4/2010 from:http://www.smartcompany.com.au/ [2] Lia Timson 2010 Word, Excel, Powerpoint-free on the web. Retrieved 4/4/2010 from: http://www.watoday.com.au/technology/ [3]SolidWorks website. Retrieved on 4/4/2010 from: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/free-cad-software-downloads.htm [4] Johnson, A. 2010. CAD moves to the clouds. Retrieved on 4/4/2010 from:http://www.manmonthly.com.au/Article/CAD-moves-to-the-clouds/514146.aspx

SolidWorks offers improved collaboration between CAD team members as they can share designs with one another and external partners. Another important feature is the SolidWorks User Group Network (SWUGN) [1]. The SolidWorks User Group Network is arrange geographically and offers users a valuable resource, the ability to network with local peers and partners helping businesses become more productive. It also connects global users, assisting them with improved understanding of SolidWorks features and SolidWorks related products. Users are able to network with peers to share experiences and technical queries and methodologies. [1] SolidWorks User Network Group, available from: http://www.swugn.org/swugn/benefits.htm