In his column in the September-October issue of Information Outlook, Stephen Abram writes, "Disruptive technological innovations are creating new opportunities for information professionals to improve teams, workplaces and organizations." A helpful definition is also included: Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal.
Collaboration today is increasingly virtual. In this installment of #SLAchat, we ask you to share one collaborative Web 2.0 tool you recently started using.
Examples can come from your day job or from virtual collaboration with your SLA colleagues. Maybe your division or chapter is using something others should know about.
Questions to keep in mind:
What goal is this tool helping you and others pursue?
What are the tool's key merits?
What improvement can you recommend from the user experience perspective?
Have you trained others to use this tool?
By commenting on this post, you're turning the SLA Blog into a more collaborative environment.
I have just started to use Diigo for sharing weblinks. Similar to Delicious, you can create either public or private groups to share bookmarks. They can be tagged so easily organised. Useful to sharing with remote team and currently trying it out with fellow SLA-er to produce a talk.
Posted by: Anneli | 11 October 2012 at 11:51 AM
I have recently gotten excited about the possibilities of realtime, scheduled , hour long TwitterChats. I like to highlight the opportunity they present to connect people, discuss narly issues, and build community without the delay and expense that more structured communication and education vehicles present. In fact, we are holding one on #Dxerror next week ;-) Oct 16 noon ET. Love to see some infopros join in.
Posted by: Lorri Zipperer | 11 October 2012 at 12:39 PM
For decision flows, I often use www.lucidcharts.com. This is a SaaS tool that offers a free account. I like the way the tool integrates with Visio. I also use it to make mockups as jpegs and PDFs too. I like the fact that you can login from virtually anywhere and work on your flows.
Posted by: Jamal | 11 October 2012 at 01:56 PM
Great info and suggestions in SLA's LinkedIn Group (http://linkd.in/P4N89L) from Valerie Revels:
"I started using Symbaloo a month ago after Google announced the elimination of iGoogle in 2013. I knew I needed to find a replacement for my iGoogle homepage because I had a number of feeds and widgets that I used quite a bit.
I plugged in "iGoogle" into the Alternativeto.net search bar and it gave me some alternatives. Netvibes was the first choice, but I already use it for something else. I started using Protopage, and still do, but I decided to try something called Symbaloo just to compare.
Symbaloo has changed how I look at the web and how I can get information to people. Because it is visual and simple to manipulate, it is a lot easier to see what you're doing. The idea of a "webmix" that you can use to tailor information is very powerful.
I have created webmixes for my personal use, but I have also created them for others who needed shopping information, medical information, and even sent my Youtube videos for a workshop training through webmixes. The beauty is that you can share the webmixes with those who don't have Symbaloo accounts, share them on social media, or keep them private. And people can use your webmixes the way they are or tailor them to their needs.
Here is the first webmix I ever created for myself, but because I finally made it public, it's being used by others:
http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/valariessymbaloohome"
Posted by: John Walsh | 15 October 2012 at 11:58 AM
Also suggested via Twitter (see #SLAchat tag): Huddle.com - a handy service for locating minutes and other meeting-related documents all in one place.
Posted by: John Walsh | 15 October 2012 at 12:03 PM
Trello.com for real time project management collaboration (this suggestion is also from Valarie Revels via SLA's LinkedIn Group).
Posted by: John Walsh | 15 October 2012 at 12:48 PM