Collaboration Tool: Huddle
Continuing in my post theme here's another collaboration offering, which I've used as a student and developer to organise, keep track and complete tasks. It's worth a look if you have a need for something - it could be just what you're looking for.
Huddle is another collaboration tool. It is well-featured online tool, which allows many users collaborate under a workspace. Rather than pull together tools from existing application, in the way Windows Live does, it's all in a single place with a fairly seamless transition between each area.
You can create a calendar with re-occuring scheduled events, which can also be pulled into iCal - there have been a few issues with this and being incorrect time zones etc, however it may work for you.
Tasks can be created and assigned with notifications of approaching dates. This is especially good to see when you're on track, what you should be working on and how much leeway there is between your task's completion and its combination with the rest of the work.
There's a whiteboard for instant online collaboration and sharing of ideas with formatting and presentation. You can write a quick note. With this and other features on Huddle it is possible to instantly notify all members, or selected members, of a workspace of your change. It can be marked as requiring approval too, through the commenting system.
There's a place for discussions with a forum-style feel. The meetings tab allows you to strap to the calendar with all the details you need for a meeting - re-ocurrance, location, duration and attendees.
As for team management, it is possible to see when your team members were last active as well as seeing contact information for any communication which can't be organised through Huddle.
Now for my favourite feature: Files. Huddle has got this right, you can edit (some) online, comment, download, upload, and notify other members about any document added or changed. Not only this, but it has a comprehensive audit trail of the documents and, to prevent work conflicts it adds the ability to download and lock a file for editing. This means others can view it, but they make changes. The way we've used this is to make your changes locally, then lock and upload your latest changes. It would be great if Huddle could implement a tagging system for this, for a team member to notify they intend to work on it - like a call for any pending edits to be uploaded.
Document approval is great for meeting minutes, you can guarantee everyone agrees, or if there are discrepancies these can be sorted through the use of the comment system.
The issue with this, in comparison to Windows Live / Live@edu is that for a full feature set it's not free. The document versioning, though superior, requires a subscription. It would be great to see a student version of this. Even if it's a limited count of files per workspace it could be extremely useful.
It's worth checking out if you haven't already. If it works ok for you let me know how you're getting on. They're open to Feedback too so if you see something that's missing don't hesitate to let them know. Such a feature is there just for that, and seemingly a requirement for applications today.
Huddle is another collaboration tool. It is well-featured online tool, which allows many users collaborate under a workspace. Rather than pull together tools from existing application, in the way Windows Live does, it's all in a single place with a fairly seamless transition between each area.
You can create a calendar with re-occuring scheduled events, which can also be pulled into iCal - there have been a few issues with this and being incorrect time zones etc, however it may work for you.
Tasks can be created and assigned with notifications of approaching dates. This is especially good to see when you're on track, what you should be working on and how much leeway there is between your task's completion and its combination with the rest of the work.
There's a whiteboard for instant online collaboration and sharing of ideas with formatting and presentation. You can write a quick note. With this and other features on Huddle it is possible to instantly notify all members, or selected members, of a workspace of your change. It can be marked as requiring approval too, through the commenting system.
There's a place for discussions with a forum-style feel. The meetings tab allows you to strap to the calendar with all the details you need for a meeting - re-ocurrance, location, duration and attendees.
As for team management, it is possible to see when your team members were last active as well as seeing contact information for any communication which can't be organised through Huddle.
Now for my favourite feature: Files. Huddle has got this right, you can edit (some) online, comment, download, upload, and notify other members about any document added or changed. Not only this, but it has a comprehensive audit trail of the documents and, to prevent work conflicts it adds the ability to download and lock a file for editing. This means others can view it, but they make changes. The way we've used this is to make your changes locally, then lock and upload your latest changes. It would be great if Huddle could implement a tagging system for this, for a team member to notify they intend to work on it - like a call for any pending edits to be uploaded.
Document approval is great for meeting minutes, you can guarantee everyone agrees, or if there are discrepancies these can be sorted through the use of the comment system.
The issue with this, in comparison to Windows Live / Live@edu is that for a full feature set it's not free. The document versioning, though superior, requires a subscription. It would be great to see a student version of this. Even if it's a limited count of files per workspace it could be extremely useful.
It's worth checking out if you haven't already. If it works ok for you let me know how you're getting on. They're open to Feedback too so if you see something that's missing don't hesitate to let them know. Such a feature is there just for that, and seemingly a requirement for applications today.