Vyew - Collaboration Tool

Vyew was created by a start-up company formed by a group of Berkeley students. Vyew is an online collaboration tool that is useful for video conferencing, online meetings, and sharing files. Up to 10 people can join the online conference and contribute. Meetings can also be recorded for later view which is very useful. If you share a formatted document in the chat, although it cannot be edited, you can highlight or add notes wherever you would like. People say that the most unique aspect of Vyew is it's capacity for true real-time collaboration. Users see the contributions of the team as they are being created.

When looking on the Vyew website, I noticed that there are tabs at the top of every users screen making the website very organized. Another interesting feature is screen share. Screen share enables two users to share their computer screens - meaning, I would be able to view the person's screen that I'm conferencing and they would be able to view mine. When video conferencing, you can easily draw charts or teach/tutor someone. It is almost as easy as being face-to-face with someone. So, if you are tutoring someone and they share a math problem with you, you can easily drag your mouse and type (perhaps in red), and draw arrows or whatever might be needed. The most important aspect of Vyew is that it is 100% free.

Resources:

http://gigaom.com/collaboration/10-tools-to-improve-communication/

http://vyew.com/s/

http://vyew.com/s/

Present.ly

Presently is an award winning microblogging platform. It creates a customized network for your business or company to work in real time, and collaborate together in many ways. It is very similar to Twitter, members create a profile, and post short updates that are "followed" by the other members of their company. These updates are all listed on a home feed, as well as the posts from other colleagues. Also, it gives you the tools built for Twitter with just a couple of changes of your settings with its Twitter-compatible API. The thing that makes Presently different from Twitter, is that the information you post is completely secure within your company. You don't have to worry about private information about work to be accessible to the outside world. Another feature this tool has is it allows you to communicate with groups of your company with great organization. If there is a specific project or topic, you can easily focus your discussion and send or receive messages about it. This way, you have your thoughts and messages completely organized. It also enables you to send pictures, files, videos and documents to other colleagues to quickly discuss before a presentation or need feedback. Presently is a very convenient way to communicate, even when your not on the computer. They have applications for your mobile phone as well, so you can always be in touch and never miss a thing. Overall, this is a great enterprise collaboration solution.

http://www.presently.com/tour

Chatter

Chatter is a great tool that helps people conveniently collaborate at work. It is a tool made by Salesforce, one of the biggest names in enterprising communication webapps. At first glance Chatter looks similar to Twitter or Facebook with the profiles, status updates, and streaming in-line comments. However, what makes it different is it’s a private social network that is just for your business. What I mean by that is you connect with your co-workers and people within your organization and everything within that network is kept private from others. This helps with community building, by making your business or company more connected and accessible to each other. Only people with a verified company email address can join your company network. This can save businesses a lot of time by having little meetings on Chatter to prepare for presentations, or to discuss future ideas, especially since you can communicate while people are in different places geographically. Once you join on Chatter, you can make a profile which helps you get to know more about your colleagues and also have them learn more about you. You can also post and share large files for times where you need an employee’s opinion before a meeting or to proofread a presentation.

Recently they have added new features to Chatter to improve the convenience for connecting with important parts of your business. They made applications for your cell phones, iPad, and your desktop computer to conveniently preview files and share new updates. They have also added customer groups, to securely connect to customers and respond and obtain feedback. Salesforce has really created Chatter to make communicating throughout the business easier than ever. With being able to connect, message, and communicate from anywhere, anytime, while just being on the computer really transforms the way a company can work.