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This article talks about the issue of socio-cultural distance in distributed software development teams and methods to bridge this gap when using a collaborative software development environment. After discussing the various collaborative development environments available to developers, it goes on to talk about integrating FriendFeed micro blog and content aggregation service with IBM's Jazz, a plugin for the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment. By integrating Friendfeed into the collaborative development environment, it is possible to reduce the socio-cultural distance that would otherwise be present if the development was done in a traditional office environment. Examples given included if a developer used LibraryThing to post a review of a book they had read, this would be revealed to the other developers who might be interested in the book which would give them a greater understanding of the developer's interests and become a possible conversation piece. Another example given was where the developers on a team were from different backgrounds such as the difference between American and Indian culture. It was stated that in Indian culture, it would be disrespectful to disagree with a senior developer. It was hoped that through making the development environment more collaborative and social, it would be possible to reduce cultural walls that would make it difficult for the parties to interact in a productive manner. While the article gives examples of the benefits of a more social collaborative development environment, specifically how their FriendFeed plugin for IBM's Jazz could bring these benefits. These do not seem to be based on an actual situation (case study) but rather seem to on how the authors imagine their plugin being used - perhaps based on their own experience in software development. This brings the reliability of the article into question and at the very least, indicates an area for further study.

Calefato, F., Gendarmi, D., & Lanubile, F. (2009). Adding Social Awareness to Jazz for Reducing Socio-Cultural Distance between Distributed Development Teams. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from Università degli Studi di Bari: http://eit09.unibg.it/pdfs/99990017.pdf

Jive SBS (Social Business Software) is a community building application, formerly known as Clearspace. It is specifically suited for medium to large organisations and boasts that it is "built for the enterprise" [1]. The application allows you to build communities for employees, the public (or both) [2]. Looking primarily at the Employee Community product, we are offered a powerful social networking tool that connects employees for the purpose of online collaboration. Employees can have detailed profiles and connections to "foster teamwork". At a glance information is also provided about online status, allowing employees to quickly see who is available for meetings etc. The profile information facilitates simple creation of organisation charts and groups for projects, teams, sections etc [3]. Features include discussions, collaborative documents, a configurable homepage dashboard, blogs, polls, bookmarks, categories, status updates, access control, private storage, mobile device support, project management tools (milestones, tasks, and calendars), search engine optimisation, and a range of other rich features [4]. Search and tag capabilities are worthy of note. The software supports tagging like most popular applications; however all content is included in search results (blog entries, discussion posts, annotations etc). This means that nothing is missed when undertaking a site search. Jive SBS has been considered a leader by Gartner in corporate social software [5] and a range of IT based experts have given encouraging reviews [6] [7]. Jive considers itself "robust, [and] enterprise tested" due to its 8 year maturity and the successful hosting of public sites with in excess of 80 million views/month, and employee communities comprising 20,000+ active users [4].

[7] Fontana, J. (2009). Jive refines corporate social networking tools. InfoWorld. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/jive-refines-corporate-social-networking-tools-893 [8] Jive Software. (2010). Get up and running with Jive Social Business Software. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/how-to-buy [9] Marks, O. (2009). All that Jive: Putting the 'social' into business software. ZDNet. Retrieved April 11, 2010, from http://blogs.zdnet.com/collaboration/?p=388

Jive SBS was built for business and is the largest and fastest Social Business Software (SBS) in the world [1]. It brings together collaboration software, community software and social networking tools and enables organisations to connect with either employee's or customers or both [1]. When Jive SBS were looking to extend their leadership in the enterprise market with a new leadership strategy [2]. They went to 62 companies to find out what their business objectives were and how they use social software within their organisation. They found there were four main areas of focus; employee engagement, innovation, marketing/sales, market engagement, government and support [2][3]. With this information they redesigned their software [2]. On April 14, 2010, Jive SBS announced its next generation of the Jive Market Engagement solution product. Jive SBS aquired Filtrbox earlier in the year and has now integrated the technology into its product [4][5]. Filtrbox is a social media monitoring software, and Jive is the first company to combine it with collaborative SBS [5]. With the Market Engagment product a business can monitor and highlight people, conversations and brands influencing your product or service. Users are able to personalise a dashboard for their organisation so that you can configure topics, competitors, or product lines and employ filtering options. The learnings made through the software can be shared among the organisation by publishing findings onto an observation wall [5]. This becomes a central point of collaboration where others in the organisation can post their comments or feedback [5]. [1] Jive SBS (2010). Jive SBS 4.0. Retrieved 19 April, 2010, from http://www.jivesoftware.com/products [2] Mosher, B. (2009). Next for the Enterprise: Social Networking Suites. Retrieved 19 April, 2010, from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/next-for-the-enterprise-social-business-software-suites-004077.php [3] Jive SBS (2010). Social Business Acc

Codaset is an online collaboration environment for software developers who use the Git source code management system (SCM). The service supports version control, source code browsing, issue tracking, milestones, wiki and blogs (Develop with Style, 2010). Codaset is built around the Git source code management tool which is a distributed version control system developed by Linus Torvalds and hundreds of other developers (Chacon, 2010). The software allows developers to track changes between versions and other milestones (Wesley, 1998). The changes are shown in the form a 'diff' that can be created between any two revisions or between any two revisions of a specific file (Git Diff, 2010). Projects hosted on Codaset can be public, semi-private or private (Develop with Style, 2010). The first private or semi-private project is free while Public projects have all information stored within them available to everyone and are open for forking and collaboration with all who wish to work on the project Develop with Style , 2010). Semi-private projects have all aspects of the project available to the public except the crucial source code (Develop with Style , 2010). Private projects on the other hand are completely hidden from the public and only those selected by the creator of the project can participate (Develop with Style, 2010). Codaset projects each contain a wiki which can be used to document, and plan the direction of a project. Like source code management, this wiki is also versioned (Develop with Style, 2010).

Git Diff. (2010). Retrieved April 18, 2010, from learn.github: http://learn.github.com/p/diff.html Wesley, R. (1998). Version Control and the Single Developer. Retrieved April 18, 2010, from MacTech: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.14/14.06/VersionControlAndTheDeveloper/index.html Chacon, S. (2010). About Git. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Git - Fast Version Control System: http://git-scm.com/about Develop with Style. (2010). Retrieved April 18, 2010, from Codaset: http://codaset.com

Confluence is commercial intranet software produced by Attlassian. It comes in both hosted or dowload options. It is an enterprise Wiki suited to larger organisations as it allows teams to collaborate and manage knowledge. It provide a single place where people can create, share, comment and edit content together. It comes with source code so it can be integrated with the organisations existing systems and processes.[1] [4] Reportedly it is in use in over 8,100 organisations in 94 countries around the globe across government, education and technology sectors. There is a catalogue of over 100 plug-ins available. The plug-in architecture allows organisations to develop their own.[4] Spaces are created for teams and individuals and permission access secures these spaces. It appears to balance user-friendliness, functionality, scalability and security [3] In using this wiki software as a project management tool users report that it feels polished and professional and is a notch above other offerings like Basecamp or MediaWiki (the platform that powers Wikipedia)[2] [3]. Descriptions like "more robust" and a "real workplace tool' [3], "world's most popular" [4] and the evidence that this product enjoys an active open source community creating plug-ins for all to use, signifies its value in the workplace.[3]

The exchange of information easily and freely in modern business would have to be considered necessary to survive. As stated by Happel (2009) "Exchanging information is vital for the success of modern organizations." Confluence by Atlassian provides a Wiki type service for business that allows the exchange of information. One of Confluences strengths is that it can be adapted and integrated into an organizations system to ensure productive process. Confluence has been adapted and used for collaborative group projects. Some of the reasoning for this is as follows: The Australian Research Council's Network for Early European Research (NEER) uses confluence for interaction with its digital base repository PioNEER. Burrows (2008) states that "Confluence is marketed as 'enterprise Wiki' software, which simply means Wiki-type software with various additional features, including the ability to control access to specific spaces and pages." And that a key element in the process of designing new structure is interoperability between Confluence and PioNEER. Networking Computing's, Anderson (2006) states that "Our Editor's Choice, Atlassian Software Systems' Confluence 2.1.2, has all the features that suit an enterprise wiki. It's easy to install and set up, yet flexible and extensible." Infoworld ranked Confluence highest out of four Wiki Collaboration tools compared and Heck, 2007 stated "It doesn't go overboard with extraneous features, yet still stuffs in an amazing amount of functionality - all surrounded by a good-looking, friendly interface." As a business collaboration and knowledge management tool Confluence offers a wide range of flexibility at competitive pricing.

References Enterprise Collaboration and Wiki Software - Confluence . (n.d.). Atlassian - Software Development Tools and Collaboration Software . Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/ Anderson, R. (2006, March 30). Review: Wikis In The Enterprise - Network Computing. Network Computing. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.networkcomputing.com/unified-communications-voip/review-wikis-in-the-enterprise.php?p=5 Burrows, T. (2008). DEVELOPING A DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR A HUMANITIES RESEARCH NETWORK: THE PIONEER PROJECT. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 13(1), 1-11. Happel, H. (2009). Social search and need-driven knowledge sharing in Wikis with Woogle. International Symposium on Wikis, 13. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from the Acm Portal database. Heck, M. (2007, January 5). Wikis evolve as collaboration tools | Applications - InfoWorld. Business technology, IT news, product reviews and enterprise IT strategies - InfoWorld. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.infoworld.com/t/applications/wikis-evolve-collaboration-tools-644

GitHub is a source code management repository host, wiki and issue tracker (GitHub Inc., 2010) that enables software developers to collaborate in the development of web and application software as primary focus but it is useful for collaborating on books and other activities of a text-based nature. GitHub is built around the Git source code management tool which is a distributed version control system developed by Linus Torvalds and hundreds of other developers (Chacon, 2010). The software allows developers to track changes between versions and other milestones. The changes are shown in the form a 'diff' that can be created between any two revisions (Git Diff, 2010). Projects hosted on GitHub can be public or private. Public and open source projects are free while commercial users and those not willing to share source code need to pay a monthly fee. In a public project, the source code stored in the repository is available to the public who can easily fork or submit patches to the project. Private projects are completely hidden from the public and can only be accessed by specifically nominated collaborators. The private project is ideal for organisations, which wish to exploit the power of GitHub but do not or cannot release their source code to the public for various reasons.

GitHub includes an issue tracker which can be used to track bugs, assign tasks and generally keep track of what needs to be done to get the software to a state as desired by the developers and other stake holders in a project (GitHub Inc., 2010). Issues can be tagged with labels to indicate what they contain (bug, enhancement, tasks, etcetera) and to specify which version they are relevant to (Preston-Werner, 2009). For example, whether or not they need to be completed before it is possible to release version 8.9.2 or need to be ready for the 9.0 release. These same labels can be used to assign an issue to a specific person (Preston-Werner, 2009) so that they are made aware that they have been delegated the task of dealing with the issue. GitHub also includes a wiki that can be used to collaborate with other members of a project and provide documentation for the project and its output.

Git Diff. (2010). Retrieved April 18, 2010, from learn.github: http://learn.github.com/p/diff.html Chacon, S. (2010). About Git. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from Git - Fast Version Control System: http://git-scm.com/about GitHub Inc. (2010). Secure source code hosting and collaborative development - GitHub. Retrieved April 18, 2010, from GitHub: http://github.com Preston-Werner, T. (2009, April 15). GitHub Issue Tracker! Retrieved April 18, 2010, from GitHub Blog: http://github.com/blog/411-github-issue-tracker Wesley, R. (1998). Version Control and the Single Developer. Retrieved April 18, 2010, from MacTech: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.14/14.06/VersionControlAndTheDeveloper/index.html

"Your information is one of your most strategic assets. You can count on EMC to keep innovating ways to store, protect, optimize, and leverage information, all with the aim of contributing to your ongoing success." (Joe Tucci, Chairman, President and CEO of EMC) EMC insignia is a company that provides IT solutions, support and training to a worldwide audience. Amongst the commercial side of EMC, they also provide valuable advice on many topics that can be discussed and used to enhance small and medium business (SMB) growth. The document in focus concerns EMC's top 10 tips for online collaboration for SMB's. These 10 tips may help SMB's in selecting what kind of collaboration software is best suited to the company. The document is in PDF format and located at http://www.retrospect.com/assets/Top10_WebCollab_en.pdf . A brief interpretation of the PDF is below, for the full article refer to the link immediately above. EMC's Top 10 Tips in Brief 1. Workspaces should be simple and easy to setup and manage. Workplace setup should be a quick process with limited IT involvement. 2. Avoid collaboration software that creates multiple points within workspaces. Locating a document should not be confusing or misleading. 3. Select the software that provides tools to deliver and work on assignments in real time. "Managers must be able to assign owners, create tasks, set milestones, establish deadlines, and track the progress of tasks" [1]. 4. Avoid collaboration software that requires workspaces to have custom coding or IT development. Instead, allow for software that provides an easy design.

5. Go for collaboration software that gives managers constant visibility across several projects. 6. Choose software that provides a secure way to manage external teams- including partners or suppliers. 7. Ensure the collaboration software has web-based workspaces so that geographic location and time zones do not become an issue. 8. The software must be secure and protection settings easily managed. 9. Keep in mind what level of internal workspace security is required - should permissions be at folder level or file level? Make sure the collaboration software suits the internal security levels of the business. 10. Collaborative software should be cost effective, consider company growth and tolerate a mixture of operating systems, various browser types and email clients. The strength of EMC's tips is that they can be applied to many web-based collaboration products on the market and are clearly suited towards SMB's. However, this implies that the list may not be extensive enough to relate to large firms. Overall, EMC's tips offer a starting point for what to look for when selecting collaboration software for businesses. References/Notes [1] EMC. Top Ten Tips for Web-based Collaboration in SMBs, http://www.retrospect.com/assets/Top10_WebCollab_en.pdf [accessed April 6, 2010].

Comindwork software is a versatile online project management and implementation tool that allows organisations to record, maintain and share project information from a single location. It is fully customisable and integrates all of the features and capabilities necessary to manage and execute diverse project tasks, such as schedules, milestones, Gantt charts and project risks along with the management of tasks and issues. Comindwork's Project and Team Dashboards support effective communication through its collaboration and blog facility, regular Email Notifications and RSS, [2] Twitter integration ( http://twitter.com/comindwork ) plus comprehensive reporting and chart display for visualisation of a project's status.[1] Assistance for project managers is provided by the centralised storage that stores all the project artefacts in an organised way, making an overview available at any time. It is easy to link tasks, pages, discussions, people and results for a more effective view of the task organization and to allocate tasks efficiently within the team. Team members and clients can communicate informally, share ideas and useful tips through the project blog or discuss project requirements via the Wiki feature. [2] Clients have the ability to track project tasks and project progress status at anytime. They can see the next milestone and know what progress to expect. They are able to review and comment on the project and comments are tracked until they are purposely closed. Clients have full access to the features set up by the original organisation's account with Comindwork. However, if a client wants to add their own projects, they can upgrade their account and add their own customers, projects and users independent of the original company that opened the account with Comindwork. [3] ....................continued in comment

Comindwork is an online application that can be utilized by business for online collaboration. It offers a free service for smaller projects, with a pricing structure that then varies on your enterprises needs and demands. As such its flexibility can be fit in with any organizations growth. The interaction that can be achieved through Comindwork with clients is also a feature of this product. Allowing client's access gives you the ability to communicate effectively and quickly with them in a professional manner. Jay (2010) at Smashing Apps states that "It's simple and clear time tracker interface provides project managers with a quick overview on time management issues." Beckman (2010) states that "Comindwork combines over 250 project management related capabilities under one roof, yet does it with a web interface that is, by and large, a breeze to use. Some of the strengths of the service include traditional project management tools, knowledge management, collaboration tools, information sharing and versioning, and both agile and traditional waterfall management tools (e.g.: think Gantt)." Gunderloy, (2008) of WebWorkerDaily states "Comindwork includes bits of functionality that you might ordinarily find spread across multiple sites and services. As with just about any other project management software, it will track projects, tasks, team members, and deadlines, as well as the connections between them. But in addition, it includes time-tracking, issue-tracking, internal blogs, and svn-versioned file storage." Komssi et al (2009) states that "Software as a Service (SaaS) is accepted as one of the most important models in the service-oriented software business today". As a management tool using software as a service (SaaS), Comindwork is a good way of implementing employee and client integration.

References: Beckman, Z. (2010, February 4). Not a panacea, but trying: Comindwork is attractive | Rational Scrum. Rational Scrum. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.rational-scrum.com/2010/02/easy-to-use-project-management-tools/ Gunderloy, M. (2008, February 18). Comindwork Piles on Project Management Features . WebWorkerDaily . Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/02/18/comindwork-project-management-features/ Jay, A. (2010, January 8). Comindwork, The Most Customizable Suit Of Flexible To-Dos, Wiki, Emails - With Gantt Charts, MS Project And Workflows @ SmashingApps. Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers @ SmashingApps. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.smashingapps.com/2010/01/08/comindwork-the-most-customizable-suit-of-flexible-to-dos-wiki-emails-with-gantt-charts-ms-project-and-workflows.html Komssi, M., Kauppinen, M., Heiskari, J., & Ropponen, M. (2009). Transforming a Software Product Company into a Service Business: Case Study at F-Secure. Computer Software and Applications Conference, 2009. COMPSAC '09. 33rd Annual IEEE International, 1, 61-66. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from the IEEE Xplore database.

This issue tracking software is for used for project development and allows participants to collaborate on a variety of projects, such as tracking fixes waiting for QA or urgent issues, ideally suited to software developers through a customer support application. [1] The simple user interface allows large and small groups to quickly create efficient workflows and automatically organize specific tasks by creating, assigning, tagging and resolving project issues. The insertion of milestones helps to plan features and establish release dates and agreed deadlines and the ability to share documents and images directly to tickets, so anyone within the project team can find them. As a customer relationship management tool, Lighthouse is efficient at managing a company's interactions with its clients and involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, which are essential within sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support by creating time-saving functionality.[2] As a case study Croogo [3] is a free, open source, content management system powered by CakePHP framework, and distributed under the MIT License. And uses lighthouse to create and reply to tickets and review the status of all projects in a simple overview that can be followed along with feeds, creating exceptional user support , as participants can create new Lighthouse tickets directly from Tender [4], Lighthouses specialized customer support service. To reduce the costs of planning and implementing software initiatives and increase the support from user base, enterprises are required to automate processes according to best practices. Using Lighthouse's email integration team members can utilize email to reply to tickets directly from inbox and as it is a web based application, it means that support can access critical information on the move, such as using the iPhone optimized interface, manage tickets through the email system, or subscribe to pro

References: [1] Lighthouse http://lighthouseapp.com/ [2] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_relationship_management [3] Croogo PHP http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/view/introducing-croogo-cms [4] Tender http://tenderapp.com/ [5]Neath, K. (2007) "Lighthouse: The bug tracker you've been looking for" retrieved on 11th April 2010 from: http://warpspire.com/tipsresources/web-publishing/lighthouse-the-bug-tracker-youve-been-looking-for/

"Communication, Collaboration, and Bugs: The Social Nature of Issue Tracking in Software Engineering" (Bertram, Voida, Greenberg, & Walker, 2010) This article, written by the Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, is a qualitative study of a group of software development teams that make use of one or more formal issue tracking systems and examines the social aspects that reside within the software engineering and bug tracking process. They argue that an issue tracker is not just a system for tracking bugs but becomes a focal point for all stakeholders of the program including engineers, users, designers and owners. The collaborative knowledge and shared journey of tracking bugs and designing software is a social process as much as it is a design process and the tracking system should be able to facilitate and archive the exchange of information and ideas. From the study of up to 15 participants spread across 4 North American software teams they were able to articulate various real world practices for examining issue and bug tracking software. The paper enunciates the main features of an issue tracking system and what the main considerations should be when designing or implementing one. References Bertram, D., Voida, A., Greenberg, S., & Walker, R. (2010). Communication, Collaboration, and Bugs: The. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from DSpace: http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/47309/3/2009-IssueTracking.Report2009-933-12.pdf

Google Code is a project hosting and collaboration service based around the Subversion (SVN) and Mercurial (Hg) version control systems. The service provides issue tracking, file hosting and a wiki (Google, 2010). Google Code can only be used by open source projects and only if they use one of the pre-approved open source code licenses (Google, 2010). Version control aids collaboration by ensuring that each developer in a team has an up-to-date version of the code base and by managing conflicts. After making a change, adding a feature or fixing a bug, the developer commits and pushes their changes to a central server (Google, 2010). When a conflict occurs - due to two developers making a change to the same file at the same time or a developer making changes offline without being able to synchronize their repository - the version control system will attempt to merge the changes however in some cases conflicts occur (Raymond, 2003). In such cases' the version control system will highlight the conflicts and point them out allowing the developer to address them before committing their changes (Raymond, 2003). Google Code offers issue tracking that allows developers to track current project defects, and planned enhancements. Each issue can be assigned to a developer and tagged with labels which may indicate things about the issue that may be useful to the project developers (Google, 2009). Google Code also contains a wiki allowing the project documentation and planning process to be collaboratively created and edited (Google, 2010).

Google. (2009, September 19). IssueTrackerFAQ. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Project Hosting on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/support/wiki/IssueTrackerFAQ Google. (2010, April 8). FAQ. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Project Hosting on Google: http://code.google.com/p/support/wiki/FAQ Google. (2010). Project Hosting on Google Code. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Google Code: http://code.google.com/projecthosting/ Google. (2010, February 04). WikiFAQ. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Project Hosting on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/support/wiki/WikiFAQ Raymond, E. (2003, September 19). Chapter 11 Tools - Version-Control Systems. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from The Art of Unix Programming: http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch15s05.html

Officemedium is an online collaborative package for business which offers centralized collaboration, client integration, security, organization and social platforming. One of the features of Officemedium is the client integration which allows the business to create user accounts for their clients which allows them to access only the information meant for them. The software is simplistic and centralised. According to Officemedium their product is "Unlike most business software, our application is easy to use and stripped of over-complicated, unnecessary clutter." Officemedium uses a concept of Clients, Employee and Super User which allows differing levels of access and integration. Whereas there are many business applications that are similar, ReadWriteStart which is a resource guide for first time businesses, describes officemedium as "Topping their list is Officemedium, a service we profiled last fall which provides a wide variety of collaborative features wrapped up in an elegantly designed interface." Business Pundit lists the advantage of Officemedium as follows: "Features: * Client integration * Contact information management * Task management * Event coordination * Personal and group calendars * File sharing and storage * Resource and document management * Shared blogging * Real-time chat * Private messaging * Status updates * User profiles * Polling * Searching and tagging * Email updates and notifications Continued...............

OfficeMedium is a "web-based intranet and social collaboration software" (McCue, 2010) allowing businesses to bring together their daily business and communication needs in one central location. OfficeMedium is targeted towards small and medium businesses, (About, n.d.) providing an application that is simple and easy to use. Since OfficeMedium provides a working environment online, it is accessible remotely (OfficeMedium, n.d.) and takes away the need for servers, installation and upgrade of software and data backups. (About, n.d.) The software provides "file sharing and storage, event and task management, contact and company information storage". (About, n.d.) In doing this, it places all data in a central location, avoiding dilemmas of misplaced data from unorganised methods of communication such as email, phone or instant message. These forms of communication can sometimes make it difficult to monitor and locate data on a particular project. Progress of all projects and anything related can be viewed through a simple dashboard which offers real-time collaboration. (OfficeMedium, n.d.) Some features include "task and event management, personal and group calendars, contact management, to file sharing and storage". (McCue, 2010) Managers, staff and clients can access and input information in these areas, depending on their user level. OfficeMedium allows three levels of users. (McCue, 2010) These levels determine the amount of access a user has. They are: Client: Allows least access. Can allow client to view and give feedback to documents. Employee: Greater access than client. Able to view a greater amount of data and can input content. Superuser: Has full access. Is able to see and manage all areas

Reference: About. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.officemedium.com/about McCue, T. (2010). Small Business Collaboration Software: Office Medium. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/04/small-business-collaboration-software-office-medium.html OfficeMedium. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2010, from http://www.officemedium.com/

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].

In 2002, Element Software an Australian-based company first released Copper. It is a "web-based project management software tool used by creative teams across the globe to manage their clients, tasks, projects, contacts and files." (Prendergast, 2009) Well known companies such as Sony Pictures, Apple and Mercedes Benz USA make use of Copper in their business. Copper is a project management tool specially created and designed for creative teams, (Element Software, 2009) to allow them to collaborate all information and data related to a particular project into one central location. This is done by creating a secure online space for each project. It "offers a beautiful interface that keeps your users up to date more intuitively". (Element Software, 2009) It's available on Mac, PC or Linux platform and can be hosted on Copper's website or installed on the companies' server. Prices start from $US299 a year to over $US1999 a year. (Copper, 2010) Some of Coppers features include: (Copper, 2010) * Users can manage tasks through drag and drop timeline * Users can allocate resources * Budgets can be viewed and edited * Files can be shared by uploading via drag n' drop or multi-file upload * Invoice and quotes created * Teams are able to view the progress of the project, through feedback given on task activities * Managers are able to "review workload across the organization" ("Products", 2007) * Mangers can administer projects and can give or limit permissions on what other users can edit or add * Offers a secure online space with 128 Bit SSL * Real-time Ajax search function * Flash multi-select Gantt Charts, which allows drag n' drop * Group Calendar that allow drag n' drop

Reference: Copper. (2010). Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.copperproject.com/. Element Software Releases Copper v4.0, a New Project Management Alternative to Basecamp, Google Docs, and MS Project. (2009). Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.newsguide.us/technology/internet/Element-Software-Releases-Copper-v4-0-a-New-Project-Management-Alternative-to-Basecamp-Google-Docs-and-MS-Project/ Prendergast, B. (2009). We're Hiring! Talented PHP/MySQL/CSS/AJAX Developer Wanted. Retrieved April 15, 2010, from http://www.elementsoftware.com/softwaredeveloperad Products. (2007). PM Network. 21, 80. Retrieved April 17, 2010, from Business Source Premier database.

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

Online collaboration requires unique group dynamic solutions, the lack of physical presence and asynchronous communication involved can create chains of emails and long lists of data that require constant analysis. The MindMeister software works like a digital whiteboard that can be manipulated by multiple users and instantly updated to reflect changes.[1] Mind mapping allows individuals to communicate to the overall objectives of the group, in a non delegate manner. Mind mapping is a very powerful methodology for structuring your own ideas but also within workshops it can be a strong tool for both learners and trainers. [2] diagrammatically communicating words, ideas and images into group visual thinking. The software has a creative and simple graphical user interface can create a hierarchical structure that can be linked and rearranged around a central theme, intuitively arranging the brainstormed concepts and ideas into groupings and assists targeting and distinguishing goals and objectives. The non-linear format allows for the creative progression of ideas with a simple history timeline to keep project teams updated on latest changes to the map, changes can be sorted by individual contributions to see how a team reached an idea and the ability to link and share ideas in real-time facilitates multi-user planning, brainstorming and project management sessions, removing obstacles of geography and time. The iPhone applications and browser extensions incorporate this creative software into standard business practice and the open source software is REST-based API allowing for simple integration into other applications and the 256 bit data encryption means that data is secure.

References: [1] MindMeister available from http://www.mindmeister.com/ [2] Top 100 Tools, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies available from: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/Top100Tools/mindmeister.html/ [3] Programmable Web available from http://www.programmableweb.com/api/mindmeister/

Mind maps are useful in the generation of ideas particularly in a group situtation. For a mind map, a main idea is taken and starts in the centre of the page. Key words and images are worked outwards in different directions. All words and ideas have many other ideas and concepts [1]. A Mind Map is "the Swiss Army Knife of the Brain" [3] which helps to improve your learning and thinking skills by prompting the brain with cues to help it work the left and right side of the brain [3]. A mind map helps organise information and rather than completing it on paper an online version such as MindMeister can be used for group collaboration [2]. Mind maps can be created in real time and viewed as changes are made [2]. Mind maps can be used in an organisation to plan meetings, know more about your competition, plan accounts and plan projects [2]. With MindMeister, mind maps can be worked on off-line and synchronised with your account once you are back so you can work anywhere that doesn't have an internet connection [2]. Mind Maps are private by default but can be made public if you choose so that you can share maps with people within your organisation or all over the world. All changes to the maps are recorded in a history so that you can see who did what and when [2]. [1] Creativity Web (2007). Mind Maps. Retrieved 19 April, 2010, from http://members.optusnet.com.au/charles57/Creative/Mindmap/ [2] MeisterLabs (2010). MindMeister. Retrieved 19 April, 2010, from http://www.mindmeister.com/ [3] Buzan (2009). Maxamise the Power of Your Brain. Retrieved 19 April, 2010, from http://www.buzan.com.au/learning/mind_mapping.html

Collaber is a virtual office that holds user information secure on a dedicated server, working on both Intranets and Extranets. The multi-platform (such as Windows, Linux and Mac) project management software allows for communication and sharing of data in a password-protected online environment. Educational institutions can benefit by creating virtual classrooms with file sharing and live interaction utilising the attractive graphics. First-time users immediately gain an understanding of available features by viewing the short video tutorials available on every feature, further enhancing the overall perception of ease of use. A demo page is also available to work through the complete process of engaging online collaboration with Collaber [1]. Collaber' features will soon include online account management for mobiles [1]. Editors are context sensitive with wizards improving file and picture sharing. Discussions and Chat tools features a time line and instant messaging with attachments. A review by Business Hacks [4] points out the value of the quantity of services Collaber offers its users and also mention the quality of interactive visuals used to enhance the user' experience of the software. Features include [1]: * Searchable contacts with changeable status and profile * Instant messaging with file and picture sharing * Drag and drop functionality to share files and folders * Task management tools to assign tasks to members and track progress * Application tool designer * Discussions, Wiki's and polls

A review by PR-inside.com [3] of Collaber' features view the highlights as: * Web version with unified account * Multi calendar with similar functionality to Google App's Calendar * Improved HTML editor * Keyboard short cuts * Advanced alerts and support * Compatibility with web applications, especially attractive to application store developers * New filters enabling items found by tags, date, members, status and more References: [1] Collaber (2007). Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.collaber.com [2] SoftSea (n.d.). 'Online Project Management'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.softsea.com/review/Collaber.html [3] PR-inside (2007). 'Web based multi-platform collaboration software released'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://www.pr-inside.com/print1414291.htm [4] BNet insight (2009). 'Collaborate in an online share workspace with Collaber'. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://blogs.bnet.com/businesstips/?p=3648

Lynda.com offers a web based training solution for collaborative groups [1], the multi-user program is an online application that lets a single administrator manage a group of Online Training Library® subscriptions. This program is ideal for institutions, offering Online Training Library® access to a group of 5 or more users. The multi-user program administrator has access to a series of reports that track individual account usage. A key benefit of Lynda.com is the 24 hour online access to the Lynda.com database of thousands of training videos [2], which reduces costly offsite training expenses, with production loss and geographical transport issues, with Lynda.com a trainer can find out, down to the minute, how long a section of training will take, making easy to fit the training into a hectic schedule. Traditionally, inter-departmental training interactions within organisations and collaborations have been infrequent and difficult to maintain and monitor the benefit of the adoption of the software tools and services that foster fluidity and cooperation uses technology to build bridges between departments. The comprehensive reporting and graphing within this training application, tracks usage per account and offers other statistical data such as most viewed titles, total usage by all users, offering simple analysis of performance. A case study is provided by the media giant Time Warner Cable Media, who produce television commercials and require constant training on the latest multimedia applications, but the company's offices, are spread across a large region. Historically, assembling these busy professionals together for training was a huge challenge [3].

References: [1] Lynda.com available from http://www.lynda.com [2] OpinionsandReviews.com, Is It Really Worth The Money? Retrieved 8th April 2010 from http://www.opinionsandreviews.com [3] Anonymous. 'Case Study:Time Warner Cable Media Sales'. Retrieved 9th April 2010 from http://www.lynda/casestudy.pdf

Lynda.com is a useful tool to help software users keep up to date with the latest releases and technology available [1]. No matter what software skills you require, there is bound to be a online tutorial available on Lynda.com to watch and learn. With access to 40,000+ tutorials, there is sure to be a software program to suit your needs [1]. Even if users are comfortable with an application, there are always tricks to learn or additional upgrades with more features. With Lynda.com keeping up to date is simplified [2]. Whether you're into digital photography, web design and development, motion graphics, or just need to brush up on Excel, you can learn all the software skills you need to gain a competitive edge with our online tutorials. Once users have registered, they are able to watch any of the videos available from anywhere at any time with their login details. There are different subscription options available either on a monthly or annual basis. The prices range from US$25 per month for the basic subscription which allows access 24/7 to all courses. The monthly premium package for US$37.50 per month includes exercise files which you can use to follow along with the tutorials. The annual subscription saves $50 which is an extra 2 months free and the annual premium subscription [2]. Online education plays an important role in today's education and as Richardson (2009) [3] explains it is common for both on campus and off campus higher education refers to "face-to-face and online course delivery as 'blended learning'". Over the years, online learning has improved significantly and the accessibility of anywhere, anytime learning is an attractive factor in choosing online learning [3]. References [1] Lynda.com: Our Mission. Retrieved 14 April 2010 from http://www.lynda.com/aboutus/Default.aspx [2] Lynda.com: Products. Retrieved 14 April 2010 from http://www.lynda.com/products/Default.aspx [3] Richardson, J. T. E. (2009). Face-to-Face Versus

"Interactive website tools for distance learning, online tutoring, collaboration and fun. Add whiteboard, chat, games, message boards, VOIP and web conferencing to your website by simply copying a few lines of HTML code. Over 100,000 created!"[1] Groupboard.com is an online collaborative whiteboard used for educational, business conferencing and entertainment purposes. Groupboard.com offers free software for businesses or individuals to add to their websites. Basically, the whiteboard acts as a real time drawing board. The software is offered in three distinct formats: groupboard (simple), groupboard designer (advanced) and groupworld.net. Groupboard (simple java whiteboard): This applet allows for simple text messaging and voice conferencing. Groupboard suggests that this format can be used for "tutoring, distance learning, training, or simply for fun!"[2] The whiteboard can handle picture uploads that can be drawn over, which may be particularly helpful in teaching for both education and businesses. Groupboard Designer (advanced): This is an advanced version, as this whiteboard can be used to add extras to the drawing capability, such as mathematical signs for teaching or the symbols used when an architect is compiling a blueprint. Groupworld.net: This format advances the whiteboard again by adding voice/video conferencing and desktop sharing capabilities to strongly enhance the collaborative environment.

Groupboard is an online whiteboard tool that can be used by educators, students, designers and anyone with a collaboratve project or task [1]. The Groupboard whiteboard can be added to a website and the Groupboard iPhone Applet allows for connectivity to the whiteboard via the iPhone [1]. Other online whiteboard collaboration tools include Virtual Whiteboard [2], Dabbleboard [3] and Vyew [4]. Virtual Whiteboard limits the length of time that a whiteboard is available for and their is a limit of four users per 15 minute collaboration session [2]. Dabbleboard's free package offers a whiteboard with unlimited users but they do not offer a website embedding option like Groupboard [3]. Vyew is a feature-rich online whiteboard application from the big-end of town. Vyew's customer page lists many positive testimonials from multi-national corporations, large educational institutions and collaboration tool reviewers [5]. Vyew does not offer a website embedding option like Groupboard. TechCrunch's review of Groupboard attests to its reliability and usefulness as a whiteboard tool [6]. Groupboard is free to use, offering good value for smaller educational groups or low-end designers. Groupboard is a relevant addition to this collaboration tool list. see References below

References [1] Groupboard. (n.d.). 'Groupboard: free online collaborative whiteboard and chat'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://www.groupboard.com/products/ [2] Foster, T. (2010). 'Virtual Whiteboard'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://www.virtual-whiteboard.co.uk/home.asp [3] Dabbleboard Inc. (2009). 'Dabbleboard - Online whiteboard for drawing & team collaboration - Interactive whiteboard software'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://www.dabbleboard.com/ [4] Simulat Inc. (2010). 'Vyew - FREE Anytime Collaboration and Live Web Conferencing'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://vyew.com/site/index3 [5] Simulat Inc. (2010). 'Customers - Vyew'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://vyew.com/site/customers/testimonials/ [6] TechCrunch. (2010). 'CrunchBase - Groupboard'. Retrieved April 3, 2010 from http://www.crunchbase.com/company/groupboard

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

Commentary by Louwna. Posted to Diigo on: 1/4/2010 http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Pages/Default.aspx from a discussion by Craig on 31/03/2010 As recent as November 2009, Microsoft was warning businesses about security, privacy issues specially differing jurisdiction when considering cloud computing as a means of collaboration. "Privacy protections are essential to building the customer trust needed for cloud computing and the internet to reach their full potential." Stafford warns that a lot of cloud computing services don't have their own infrastructure but rent from others. This will necessarily be the smaller companies. Customers of SharePoint can be assured that "sophisticated controls for securing company resources" have been thoroughly integrated into the product as it is backed by years of research from Microsoft. (Stafford, P. 2009) SharePoint encourages 3rd party developers to develop custom modifications or to incorporate SharePoint into existing collaboration software. Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Social Fest was a, 'competition by invite', to ten, cloud-collaboration, IT companies who each came up with some unique new way of utilizing SharePoint into their own collaborative platforms. SharePoint has a built in editor that allows some customization. SharePoint 2010 will provide deeper integration with Office 2010 soon to be available for retail sales. This version of Office will support Office Web Apps coming with Office 2010. Online support called "SharePoint Online Services" is already supporting more than a million users on line. Microsoft promises; "We're going to be more Internet-focused and cloud focused than ever before." ( Johnston, S.J. 2009) (Stafford, P. 2009) Retrieved on 31/03/10 from: no

Zoho Projects is another multi-user project management tool with planning and reporting capabilities. It offers * task management including setting task dependencies; * Milestone setting and managment * ability to schedule team meetings, gather notes, post slides and manage project from a central location * ability to centrally post and share files; * create a project "intranet" with the built-in Wiki; * a discussion board; * online group chat; * Gantt chart reporting; * time tracking and ; * integrated invoicing; Zoho have a comprehensive portfolio of over 20 apps including an impressive list of office suite applications in which Zoho projects was added in 2009. Several have won industry awards. They have a reputation of regularly developing and adding to this suite. Pricing is very affordable ranging from free for a personal use trial version to $80/month for unlimited use. They appear to have out in practice good physical security of physical property, network and people processes ensuring continued operation in the future [1] With full integration with Google Apps, you can login using your Google profile. [3] Although a relative newcomer to the collaborative project management tools market, it seems a logical progression along the development of Zoho's integrated office products. [2] [1] Zoho Corporation (2010). 'Project Collaboration and Management Done Right'. Retrieved April 1, 2010 from http://projects.zoho.com/home.na [2]McCue, T. (2009). Review of Zoho Projects: Project Management Tool Small Business Trends Retrieved 13 April, 2010, from http://smallbiztrends.com/2009/09/review-zoho-projects-project-management.html [3]Miller, R. (2009). Zoho Projects integrated with Google Apps. Fierce Content Management Retrieved 13 April, 2010, from http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/s

Although Zoho Projects does lack in features compared to online collaboration software such as Central Desktop, it's ease of use and the integration of task tracking does set it apart from it's counterparts [4]. Computer users new to online collaboration will find the limited features easy to master and is perfect for small to mid-size companies whose employees regularly telecommute. While Top Ten Reviews [2] gave a less than glowing review for it's resource management and budget features, another review by actual users [1] gave it five stars for it's project management facilities, gnatt chart, calendar integration, document sharing abilities and wiki. Zoho Projects make use of integrated group chat, discussion boards and utilising Project Wiki, webpages can be uploaded with embedded media such as video. The 'Project Stream' shows the latest update of project activity, live chats and live collaboration with Microsoft project files. A video is available on Life Hacker that shows the Zoho Projects in action [3]. Zoho Projects' users are updated by email or rss feeds, without them having to be signed-in to be kept in the loop. Users of Zoho Projects can also benefit from including Zoho's other products such as Zoho Writer, Zoho Planner and Zoho Invoice.

References: [1] Google Apps Marketplace (2010). 'Zoho Projects' . Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=2533+16735307238406892037 [2] Top Ten Reviews (2010). Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://online-project-management-review.toptenreviews.com/zoho-projects-review.html [3] Life Hacker (2009). 'Zoho Projects keeps teams focussed and in touch'. Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/07/zoho-projects-keeps-teams-focused-and-in-touch/ [4] Bright Hub (2009). 'Review of Zoho Projects'. Retrieved April 12, 2010 from http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/reviews/27487.aspx