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Friendpaste is an opensource review system where users can paste text or code, then share the link with friends or colleagues, who can also contribute, edit or add comments line by line [1]. Friendpaste has a simple user-interface that gives the user a choice of over 160 coding languages with preferred syntax highlighting, version reviewing, revision numbering, paste comparisons and a variety of colour schemes for sourcecode makes this product a highly usable pastebin product [1]. Friendpaste affords users' with good privacy, there is no need to login or register and user-preferences for example colour schemes options and preferred coding language are the only pices of information stored via Cookies [1]. Friendpaste provides users with a link and html to embed their text or code onto a web page [1]. Code can be locked and password protected to prevent edits [2]. Friendpaste is featured in Smashing Apps; '69 Coolest Web Apps Of 2009' and has been reviewed by Pssolutions and Go4webapps [3],[4],[5]. Pssolutions suggests that Friendpaste can be used to extend your Twitter conversations [4]. Go4webapps recommends the Friendpaste textMate Bundle to paste code to Friendpaste without the need to open a browser [5]. Enki Multimedia, the authors of Friendpaste say, "We build small and simple products that fit your needs" [6]. Watch a real-time video review of Friendpaste at http://vimeo.com/10813960 [7]. ------------------ see References below

References [1] Enki Multimedia. (2009a). 'Friendpaste - About Friendpaste'. Retrieved April 7 2010 from http://friendpaste.com/about [2] Enki Multimedia. (2009b). 'Friendpaste - Welcome'. Retrieved April 7 2010 from http://friendpaste.com/ [3] Jay, A. (2009). '69 Coolest Web Apps Of 2009'. Retrieved April 7 2010 from http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/12/29/69-coolest-web-apps-of-2009.html [4] Pssolutions. (2009). 'Paste a huge chunk of text to a friend'. Retrieved April 7 2010 from http://pssolutions09.blogspot.com/2009/06/paste-huge-chunk-of-text-to-friend.html [5] Go4webapps. (2010). 'Friendpaste - share your stuff with your friends'. Retrieved April 12 2010 from http://go4webapps.com/2010/04/09/friendpaste-share-your-stuff-with-your-friends/ [6] Enki Multimedia. (2010). 'Enki Multimedia: Simple small business software'. Retrieved April 12 2010 from http://e-engura.com/ [7] Chesneau, B. (2010). 'Friendpaste - review paste in realtime'. Retrieved April 14, 2010 from http://vimeo.com/10813960

"Friendpaste offers a service called application programming interface through which anyone can write their own program to post public paste in a new and different way. This service offers a contact with friendpaste via irc on freenodes or twitter"[1]
"Freenode is a service of peer-directed projects center (PDPC) Freenode provide discussion facilities for the Free and Open source Software communities, for not for profit organizations and for related communities and organizations. Freenode provides facilities to a variety of group and organizations." [1]
"You can use formatting for dozens of different kinds of code, and it has a revision and annotation system so the friends you share your code with can leave smarter comments. One of the great code-centric features is the ability to leave a comment based on the line number of the code you are reviewing making it easier to reference comments to their appropriate place". [2]
"Friendpaste is the first application that uses CouchDB and it makes use of CouchDB's revision feature. Unlike a lot of pastie-like systems, Friendpaste lets you edit a paste and lets you review older versions. So changes can easily be tracked and different versions compared." [3]
References [1] Friendpaste - share your stuff with your friends, http://go4webapps.com/2010/04/09/friendpaste-share-your-stuff-with-your-friends/ [accessed April 13, 2010]. [2] Clipboard: Friendpaste is a Code-Friendly Text Sharing Tool, http://posts.kennethreitz.com/post/86416667/clipboard-friendpaste-is-a-code-friendly-text-sharing [accessed April 13, 2010]. [3] Planet PHP, rel=nofollow target=

BigBlueButton is a brand new, free open source web-meeting platform ideally suited to Universities and Colleges for delivering Distance Education [1]. BigBlueButton runs on Mac, Unix and PC computers and desktop integration is available with VMWare, Ubuntu, Debian and RPM packages and Gentoo is currently in development [2]. BigBlueButton utilises 15 open source components and BigBlueButton's Demo shows how easily it supports video, chat and audio conferencing, PDF and PPT slide-sharing, and, Open Office Org files or Microsoft Office document sharing [3] [4] [5]. Three levels of users are moderator, presenter & viewers, the moderator can choose themselves, or others to be a presenter. The class presenter can share their desktop view with the rest of the class and directly message an individual student during a meeting [3]. The BigBlueButton site hosts a variety of tutorial demonstrations so prospective clients can become familiar with this feature-rich package [3]. The Demo page allows vistors to test run the product by joining a Demo Meeting [6]. Whilst BigBlueButton is an web-meeting platform for online conferences, the people from BigBlueButton do not provide hosting. Nevertheless BigBlueButton is easily downloaded and installed onto the education provider's own server space [7]. The package is coded with a clean, lean design that focuses on usability and multiple virtual classrooms can be run from a single BigBlueButton server [8]. Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada use BigBlueButton as a learning envrioment in their 'Systems and Computer Engineering' course [9]. see below for References

BigBlueButton is a web conferencing system that is specifically tailored for distance education [1], particularly for universities and colleges to allow high-quality e-learning [2]. It is open source and constantly under development. The system is Flash-based and allows sharing of slides, voice, chat, video and desktops [3]. Generally speaking, the system is well received; however there has been some criticism about the slowness of desktop sharing [4]. The system strongly utilises Open Source methodology by utilising existing apps and code to piece together and present a virtual classroom solution [4]. The use of Open Source can be positive in a corporate sense as it often has a large support community and the ability to conduct one's own development. BigBlueButton does not offer commercial hosting of its service, which is arguably why it is being pitched to universities (given access to considerable resources in the guise of students and IT staff) [5]. This may be a disadvantage in some respects; however a corporate organisation may consider this a better solution to wholly hosted applications, as a stronger level of control is possible. It has been reported that the developers are very hands on in regards to live demos of the product, which is comforting when trying to learn a new piece of software [6], however, the system is very new, which may deter some organisations from utilising until it is more proven.

[1] BigBlueButton. (2010). BigBlueButton Blog. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://bigbluebutton-blog.blogspot.com/ [2] BigBlueButton. (2010). Homepage. Retrieved April 21, 2010, from http://bigbluebutton.org/ [3] Asterisk Exchange. (2010). BigBlueButton. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.asteriskexchange.com/listings/165 [4] SetupLinux. (2010). BigBlueButton: Web conference and meeting room review. SetupLinux.com. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.setuplinux.com/2010/04/bigbluebutton-web-conference-and-meeting-room-review/ [5] Byrne. (2010). Big Blue Button - An Open Source Video Conferencing Platform. Free Technology for Teachers. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/big-blue-button-open-source.html [6] Lavolette, E. (2010). Push the BigBlueButton. Betsy's Eclection. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from http://betsylavolette.com/?p=928

Web2 has seen the rise in online social networks like MySpace and Facebook, Ning is different because it allows you to create your own social network to share with a few people or with the world [1]. Project managers, activists, educators or anyone interested in starting-up an online community have the opportunity to create their own free Social Network with Ning [1] [2]. With your own Social Network you can share and discuss projects, form workgroups, collaborate and meet over any cause or topic of interest [1]. Members can ask to join a created Social Network, the administrator and network friends can invite other members to join [3]. Your Social Network can be a public, globally accessible network or it can be a private, select group of approved members only [3]. Ning is a feature-rich Social Network and with the Ning Apps directory, members can add extra functionality to their personal Ning page [4]. Ning network administrators can pick and choose from many features to customise the look and feel of their social network and their members' experience [5]. Your network's members can upload photos to their own photo gallery, they can chat, create conversation topics, upload videos and customise the appearance of their profile page [6]. The searchable Ning Blog [7] has a series of FAQ and help articles to assist new users and network administrators. Your Ning Network can be set up so it appears under your own domain name [8]. Since it commencement in 2005 Ning's co-founders Marc Andreessen (from Netscape fame) & Gina Bianchini have been the brains behind developing the platform for the 20 million visitors who currently use Ning today [9]. see References below

Ning is an online social collaboration tool which brings together networks of people with similar interests and passions [1]. Ning submits information into categories to ensure content is accessible for users. The categories include: sports, causes, education, art, politics, entertainment, networking and music [1]. It is about creating a customized social network and inviting people to join or joining social networks already created with topics of interest. Ning integrates different applications like blogs, wiki, forums, photo galleries and calendars [1]. Ning's main competitor in the online social network space is SocialGo with Facebook and MySpace offering a similar service however not as tailored and unique [2]. As at 12/11/2008 Ning had over 4 million visitors a month [4] after its launch in 2005. In a recent article, McCracken (2009) [2] revealed that Ning has announced it will no longer provide free networks, which means network creators will either have to switch to a paid plan or leave Ning and move elsewhere. It is a brave move and with other competitors offering a similar service for free, it will be interesting to see if creators will remain with Ning or move on. However as Ramirez (2009) [3] points out, according to the 'ownership rights' which is part of the 'Terms of Services', "Ning owns all right, title and interest, including, all intellectual property rights, in and to the Ning Technology". So depending on what Ning is to be used for, it is important to read the terms of service for any online collaboration tool. References [1] Ning: Create and Discover. Retrieved 16 April 2010 from http://www.ning.com/ [2] McCracken, H. (2010). Ning: No More Free Networks. Retrieved 16 April 2010 from http://www.pcworld.com/article/194379/ning_no_more_free_networks.html [3] Ramirez, N. (2009). Ning Review. Retrieved 16 April 2009 from http://www.thecommunityarchitect.com/2009/06/01/ning-review/ [4] Nations, D. (n.d.). What is Ning? Retrie

References continued .... [7] Ning Inc. (2010). 'Why You'll ♥ Ning'. Retrieved April 2, 2010 from http://about.ning.com/ [8] Ning Inc. (2010). 'Extend your brand by using your own domain'. Retrieved March 30, 2010 from http://help.ning.com/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3640 [9] Parr, B. (2010). 'Ning CEO Gina Bianchini Stepping Down. Mashable - the social media guide'. Retrieved April 2, 2010 from http://mashable.com/2010/03/15/ning-ceo-gina-bianchini-stepping-down/