The Case for Collaborative Tools

Lucie Olejnikova and Jessica de Perio Wittman have written an excellent article, The Case for Collaborative Tools: Long-distance teamwork on a shoestring budget.

Their summary of the article:

"This article shares a bit of our  experiences (the exciting and the frustrating moments), and outlines how we used free online collaborative tools to make the long distance seem short. This article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of long-distance collaboration and how to apply the same tools and principles to a variety of work settings, such as law firms, firm libraries, court libraries, public libraries, and academic libraries. In addition, we mention the psycho-sociological aspects of a long-distance, Web-based communication, as well as its impact on project administration and budget."

Of special interest is the survey they took and the results they obtained about use of collaboration tools. I also like the focus on free collaboration tools and the way they tested out the ideas we have in our book.

Excellent insights, important conclusions and highly recommended. Excellent work. It also helps confirm our belief that law librarians will be the leaders in the early stages of adoption of collaboration tools.

 

A Four Part Report on SharePoint in the Real World

Bill Ives has posted a great series of posts on real-world experiences with Microsoft SharePoint. He characterizes SharePoint as the "most common platform for enterprise 2.0."

The posts cover a set of four sessions at a conference on “Real World Sharepoint Experiences”sponsored by Knowledge Management Associates.

The four sessions covered:

Dispatches from the Front Lines

Training Approaches

Sharepoint Best Practices Conference

Upcoming Sharepoint Investment Areas

Doug Cornelius also liveblogged the same conference at his post "Dispatches from the Front Lines - Themes and Trends in SharePoint Use."

Both posts give you access to great information about the ways people are using ShaprePoint in the real world filtered for you through the eyes and ears of two very knowledgeable experts.