Not Socialising - Just Working

Somehow, I've got involved with a community based project where a number of local groups have come together to provide training events for local people. Having worked together for a while and meeting in-person every few months, they have found it difficult to keep all groups informed of what all other groups are doing.

Chatting with the people tasked to improve this situation, the main items of a wish list are:

• a space for group members only
• a place for meeting agendas, minutes and notes
• a list of contacts
• an events calendar
• a forum for activity updates

My first thought was for Google Education; the tools, permissions and sharing possibilities seemed tailor made to solve the collaboration problems. Unfortunately a number of the groups are part of the local authority who's IT system prevents access to anything Google (other than search I presume). However, I also had second thoughts about the suitability of Google Apps for this group. I need to think this through more but I felt a more straightforward physical web space and simple tools than provided by Google would suit this group better.

An initial web search brought back a host of social networking type sites:

• http://www.hoop.la/
• http://www.bigtent.com/
• http://www.spruz.com/
• http://www.mixxt.net/

These sites tended to offer a range of facilities that weren't on the groups wish list and would tend to cloud the fairly basic job the group needed to accomplish.

It took a little time to find the search terms that would bring back the sort of straightforward web space with basic functionality that I wanted ('online group workspaces' seemed to provide the most appropriate results). An initial sifting left a number of potential sites:

• http://www.glasscubes.com
• http://www.wizehive.com
• http://wiggio.com
• http://www.zoho.com/projects/

NB: Yammer and Podio were not included in this list as they had a few too many social features and all users need to have the same email domain (ie work in the same organisation) which is not true of this group. There was also the ultra minimal option to just have a shared calendar eg http://30boxes.com/ which is perhaps a little too minimal.

The group are now looking at 2 sites to choose their favourite.

http://wiggio.com
I like the look of this interface; it has a simple horizontal tab menu focusing on the 3 main functions of Activity Feed, Document Folder and Calendar with a vertical menus providing a members list on the left and collaboration and communication tools on the right.

The website says that Wiggio is the easiest (free) way to work in groups with an online toolkit to support group work. Perfect for private groups:

• host virtual meetings and conference calls
• create to-do lists and assign tasks
• send email, text and voice messages
• manage events with a shared calendar
• poll your group in real time
• upload and manage files in a shared folder.

There is a good knowledge base containing 'how to' information. There is a premium service which allows custom branding etc. The site does have a few 'flaky’ moments now and again where things work one minute but not the next (this could be explained by the web session expiring without giving the user an alert to login again).

www.glasscubes.com
This site looks fairly straightforward and focuses on the same Share, Collaborate, & Communicate functionality although I feel the interface is a little more crowded and 'busy' than Wiggio.

The website says this site promotes Online Collaboration allowing you to organize your day to day work, projects, information, people and files securely. A web-based online collaboration tool and project management software that enables you to:

• Share Files
  Getting lost with too many emails? Share files and content in secure online workspaces with people inside and outside your organization.
• Online Collaboration
  Manage projects, and easily organize your day to day work. Keep on top of your task’s and get visibility on all your stuff.
• Communicate
  Connect with people and communicate better, saving time by letting you get work done (the important things) more quickly and efficiently.

There is a pricing plan but the free account gives unlimited users, 2 workspaces, 1Gb storage and a variety of features (details at http://www.glasscubes.com/full-features). However, on the free account, HTTPS is available on Sign in only and the online document editor is no longer available.


The other 2 sites in brief:

• www.wizehive.com
  This site gives a mix of collaboration and social tools. Whether this is a good mix or just a confusion of the 2 is open to debate. The website gives a flavour of the site:
  "Build forms and workflows, automate business processes, and drive social engagement with your customers & employees using WizeHive's web based platform On your own website or through your facebook fan page!"
• http://www.zoho.com/projects/
  Zoho projects provide a number of tools for online workgroups but here the focus is very much on Project Management and doesn't really fit the needs of the group I'm working with.

Finally, there is http://groupspaces.com
The site provides tools for managing a membership group rather than a work group. Although not quite right at the moment, if the group wants to engage the public by developing a programme of events for a members group, this could well provide their next step.

http://groupspaces.com/SlowFoodPU/

I'm sure that the 'Social Web' phenomenon has widened participation of people with the digital world and probably improved their digital skills hugely. Occassionaly though, all people need are straightforward work tools. We aren't all being social all of the time. Occasionaly most of us just have to do a bit of work, sometimes in a team.

TGIF - Time to be social.

Webinar Software - Reviews and Reality

Next week a small group of us will be trying out 4 different webinar software packages. The aim of the test is to experience the software as both presenters and attendees in an attempt to choose one package that we can all use across our different institutions. Regional staff development is the end goal.

A traditional seminar is a small group of students that meet regularly under, the guidance of a tutor, to exchange information, discuss theories, etc. The important word here is 'exchange'. The idea is that ALL of the group contribute so a web based seminar (or webinar) must allow both tutor AND students to communicate freely and to present their own work. The focus then is on software that provides a type of virtual classroom approach rather than on webcasting (squirting video onto the web for a largely anonymous and passive audience) or webchat/conferencing (a discussion using one or more of text, audio and video).

Today I will show the review sites and later I'll update the post with our experiences.

One really useful site provides reviews and comparisons of 35 different software packages. The top 10 (on 8 June 2012) are shown below;

 

http://webconferencing-test.com/en/webconference-home

Other packages listed include some names that will be familiar with most teachers; InstantPresenter (15 - 8.6), Skype (18 - 8.2), Blackboard Collaborate (29 - 7.4). The reviews are based on the following evaluation guide:

1. MEETING TYPES
1. Web conference
2. Webinar
3. Webcast
2. 2. COLLABORATION TYPES
1. Desktop sharing 
2. Virtual room
3. 3. SUPPORTED COMMUNICATION CONTENT
1. Web conference
2. Audio conference
3. Video conference
4. 4. IMPLEMENTATION TYPES
1. Shared hosted service (SaaS)
2. Local installation
3. Hybrid installation
5. 5. MOBILE USE & PLATFORM INDEPENDENCE
6. 6. SOLUTION TYPES
1. Specialized solution (focus on web conferencing)
2. Integrated solution (unified communications)
7. 7. SPECIAL BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
1. Virtual classroom
8. 8. VENDOR STABILITY, SUPPORT & REFERENCES

Another review site (http://www.voip-sol.com/an-analysis-of-the-best-webinar-services/) lists their top 10 which has some similarities with the above but probably not enough overlap to provide a clear winner.

1. MegaMeeting
2. GoToWebinar
3. Microsoft Office Live Meeting
4. Fuze Meeting
5. WebEx
6. ClickMeeting
7. Adobe Connect
8. InstantPresenter
9. GatherPlace
10. Dimdim

A really helpful practical guide has been created by Matt Ewens from JISC's RSC South West (http://jisc-rscsw.ning.com/group/informationhighway/forum/topic/show?id=5896405%3ATopic%3A31221&xg_source=msg) which covers 11 applications and for each gives a feature list, screen shot, strengths, challenges and a price comparison chart.

From our reading of these review sites the group decided to try a practical comparison using GoToMeeting, WebEx, Fuze and Adobe Connect.

I'll post soon on the practical reality.

Until then - TGIF

Timelines – Visualising date/time data

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t find tables of data or continuous prose having data buried within particularly beautiful. I do find visual expressions of ideas and data more memorable and easier to analyze.

This post looks at different timeline creators available on the web. All are free or have a free component and some need to be downloaded and run on a web server. If you want to create a few timelines for your teaching or provide a timeline facility for your organisation; read on.

Timeglider (http://timeglider.com)
My favourite site for aesthetics and smoothness of operation. The creation interface is easy to use and the timelines produced are satisfying to use with a good level of functionality.

 Event labels and span lines expand to provide further information, links and images. The time base intervals can be changed from 1 hour to 600 years using the zoom slider so allowing a wide range of date/time data to be easily managed and interrogated on-screen. Although the website is Flash based and so inoperable on iPad devices, there is an open source Javascript plug-in viewer available for download.

Events can also be listed and sorted by title, start and end date. Timelines can be scrolled by mouse or keyboard. Account options include Free (3 timelines, 1000 visits per month), Plus (5$/month for greater functionality and collaborative editing) and Enterprise (organisational data display).

The site also includes a facility to create a free timeline based on the New York Times database of news stories using search terms of your choice (http://timeglider.com/app/nytimes_explorer.php).

A great site for creating a few free timelines with the minimum of fuss.

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SIMILE Timeline (http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/)
This timeline widget was created as part of the SIMILE project (MIT, 2003-08) that was investigating how to visualise data held in different formats.

The open source code can be downloaded and run on your own web server.

Although the timelines can be generated from a variety of source data types and integrated with other webpage features, eg Google Maps, this one is really for experienced web developers.


There is a WordPress widget however if you want a timeline of your blog entries and themes; http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-simile-timeline/

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Dipity (http://www.dipity.com)
A good looking site that offers a host of features to include media rich content, use of real-time data sources with the ability to allow/control collaborative contribution or editing. Dipity members can also leave comments on the timeline or individual events.

A neat feature is the ability to add existing content from sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Blogger etc rather than having to add manually all of the timeline events.

I have experienced problems at work where the timeline does not display in the browser (a firewall issue I believe) and the site can be rather slow to load.

Account options include Free (3 timelines, 5000 visits per month) and other options ranging from $5 to $100 per month for greater (enterprise) functionality. There is quite a lot of advertising and you would need the Channel plan ($50/month) to have ad free timelines.

Great for those users who are ‘Web2 enabled’ and want to aggregate all manner of content.

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Tiki-Toki (http://www.tiki-toki.com)
By far the most beautiful timelines around!

The simple panning control is intuitive and works smoothly bringing events (with links to more details) gracefully into view. A zooming tool would be good for when your timeline gets larger.

Images and video can be added to events but you can only create 1 timeline with the free account. Bronze ($5/month) and Silver ($20/month) accounts give 5 and 25 lines respectively with other features available. A teacher account ($100/yr) seems to focus on 1 teacher and 1 class, not a suitable solution for widespread use within an institution.

This is the site to use if you want one WOW factor timeline.

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TimeRime (http://www.timerime.com)
My first impressions were not great and I put this site some way down my top-sites list.

The timelines created improve once you learn how to navigate the site properly using the various tools available (some more obvious in their use than others).

One nice feature is the star rating and number of views data shown for each timeline.

The account structure looks quite attractive. A free account gives an unlimited number of timelines (max 100 events per line) with most of the functionality enabled. The Premium account (e39/yr) gives greater storage, events and video options. The Edu Standard account (e149/yr) provides a number of desirable ‘walled garden’ features that many teachers would want to see.

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xTimeline (http://www.xtimeline.com)
I find this site quite frustrating to use. The line slider is difficult to control and events tend to ‘dance’ around the screen as you try to explore the events.

Further details of each event appear in a drop-down screen that obscures the rest of the line. Although a nice feature of this creator is that you can have a group working together on a timeline, the outcome just isn’t as engaging as the sites mentioned above.

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TimeToast (http://www.timetoast.com)
These timelines are also rather frustrating to use; event bubbles appear with the slightest mouse movement and the panning control take some time to get used to.

Further detail again appears in an area that grows to obscure the rest of the line.

While the layout is clean and simple, I would prefer to use a number of the other sites.

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This brief coverage has focused on web based generator sites. I'll post again in the future to look at other sites for creating printed timelines or software to run on a PC (not to mention existing timeline resources ready for use in the classroom).

TGIF