Online collaboration with ease using Scribblar

If you need a place where a group of you can get together in a virtual room and share conversations, text and audio, place stuff for comments, use a whiteboard together etc. then Scribblar may be for you.

There are many of these types of systems available. You can create your own room and use it for free. So if you'd like to test out the possibilities from working int his way then this could be helpful. What I like was the PRO edition which enables you to build this software into your existing website including branding it to suit your own needs. Sounds like a quick, efficient and cost-effective way to get up and running with online collaboration without spending time and money on in-house solutions.

Test it out here: http://www.scribblar.com/

Top 10 gadget sites

Drawers full of gadgets tend not to make us productive improvement leaders, instead it is how we use them. For those of you who like to keep up to date with the latest technology and then find inventive ways to use it, then Fastcompany.com have summarised what they believe are the Top 10 Gadget Sites. You can access their review here: http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/09/ten-gadget-sites.html?partner=fasttake


Me? I liked the Geek Sugar site http://www.geeksugar.com/ - designed for lady geeks...

Hold web meetings for free

There are some good systems available for holding online meetings. However, many of these have a significant cost and if you're still in that phase of testing out whether these processes will be useful for you why pay money to test? There are some excellent freebie systems available with some of them having more features and flexibility that the pay-for versions.

I like to use http://www.dimdim.com/. Why? Apart from the fact it is free it one of the key factors for me is that the attendees do not have any software to download. You just set up the session and they log in and we're sharing and collaborating. Many organisations limit the downloading of software so this is a quick and easy way to test how the technology can work without stressing the IT department.

There are other freebie systems available so do some searches if you're looking for alternative to the pay-for options.

Tips for sharing information via the web

I'm always looking for quick and efficient ways to share information. Here are three that I use and find really helpful. There is some crafty webware available to help the process and it's changing all the time.

1. Social Bookmarking. I use http://www.del.icio.us.com/. If you're still bookmarking to your browser then consider using social bookmarking. Want to know what I am bookmarking then find me on this site - my username is sfraser881. You can find others who might be bookmarking things like you - it is a whole new world of search, discovery, annotation and sharing. You will find links to various social bookmarking sites if you click on the "share this" button on the pages of many sites - have a look at my own website www.sfassociates.biz and down the bottom righthand side of the home page you will find the button to access social bookmarking.

2. Highlighting. Ever found a great paragraph in a website and wanted to point that out to someone? You end up sending an email to a friend with a long winded note explaining what it is all about. No more - use the tool from http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/. Easy to use, you go to the web page you want, use the highighter and it then prompts you to either email the link or share. Here is an example from my book reviews blog http://awurl.com/cpmju01061133.

3. Google notebook. If I'm collecting a variety of resources from the web on a specific topic and then want to share those resources often I'm stuck. I now use Google notebook (sign up on iGoogle). You find the web page, right click, add to notebook and it then saves to the notebook you want. When you're ready you can then share that notebook with anyone else. They can then see your web research as well as any comments you may have in there.

Huddle.net for virtual team and project working

Virtual consultancy, virtual team and project working have all been priorities for me and my company (see our website for more details on virtual working and why... our environmental policy http://www.sfassociates.biz/)

Always on the look out for secure, safe and easy to use systems to support especially team and project working, I have found http://my.huddle.net/ to be far better than other (more-expensive) systems. It is encrypted (useful when working with government agencies), incredibly easy to use and has many features all designed to reduce your email in basket! I like the way you can choose to get updates by RSS feeds, you can add comments to documents (and then decide who needs to be notified about the comment) and the front overview for each workspace gives you an instant update about who is doing what.

Software tools like this really enable leaders, of all sorts, especially project improvement leaders, to be efficient, effective and make productive use of their time.

I wonder now how any project, virtual or not, gets on without it.

Medically orientated elearning & games

Whether you're seriously looking to improve your knowledge of things medical or whether you're just interested in testing out some excellent quality elearning - then have a look at this:

http://www.theonlinelearningcenter.com/registereduserevents/clinicalchallenge_new2.aspx

Free online elearning of good quality

I needed to update my skills on Microsoft Access and found www.alison.com provided an excellent elearning system. The quality of the course was good and it met my needs in that it was flexible in access, easy to use and I learnt lots of new things.

While I was about it, I went through the office safety and a number of other courses that they offer.

For staff who need some digital literacy updating then this is a really good place to start, and maybe even finish.

Social networking site takes on knowledge management

There are hundreds of social networking sites around but this new one looks interesting and if it works it could reshape how we share knowledge and learn from, with and among our online friends.

www.ileonardo.com is where social networking meets a social form of knowledge management. You can upload content and create notebooks where you can collaborate with other users. You can see the information that your friends are working on. In this new era of open source knowledge and rapid dissemination, this feature has some significant advantages. It could rewrite the concept and dynamics of what is traditionally known as the opinion leader.

What I like about this site is how it moves on the concept of spreading good practice. It forces us all to think about how much we want to to share and with whom.

Why use a text dictionary? Be inspired with visuwords

Still on the theme of being visual I am in awe of www.visuwords.com. Once you've got over the wibbles and wobbles of the way the words appear on the screen it is fascinating how the relationships and patterns between words are shown. It made me think about how I use the meaning of words. Once you start exploring it is difficult to stop and before you know it you've learnt something.

Search Engine for Visual Learners

Google has its place, though sometimes I need a visual fix, something a little more 3D in nature and a touch more inspirational. Something that shows me the connections. When I saw
www.kartoo.com it felt like it connected with my brain - but then I know I am a visual learner. If you look at this and go "yawn" then feel free to indulge yourself with Google.

If you're in business then you'll find it fascinating to see how this meta search engine displays the connections and patterns for the keywords you provide. I am sure you will learn something new about your organisation and its online identity.