The shared family photo album with siblings, the vacation calendar in the department or the smartphone shopping list for the whole family: social collaboration, or social business collaboration, is everyday life. On a daily basis, people work together on a wide variety of projects via the Internet, both professionally and privately. Thanks to the ubiquitous cloud, fast internet connections and almost unlimited application possibilities, this is not a trend but rather the future of collaboration.
“Social Collaboration”: Software for private projects, small businesses and larger ventures
In order to keep track of project-related networking, we are presenting in a small series various ways to use the advantages of social collaboration - whether for private matters or for professional ones. After a basic part that roughly illuminated the subject area and a sequence about programs with which private and smaller business projects can be carried out Office chair can be followed, now a quick look at powerful and expandable applications that could be interesting for experienced private users or smaller companies.
Of course, there is a limitation right from the start: If the “social collaboration” principle were consistently implemented, the entire operational structure would have to be geared towards online, networked collaboration. Software that is programmed to the specific needs of the company would be necessary, making it unnecessary to jump back and forth between individual applications. Or a powerful software that can be used to structure a newly founded company. A big advantage of consistent social collaboration is time savings because all the threads come together on one user interface - such as internal communication, accounting or the scheduling of individual projects. This means there is no loss of time thinking about where you have saved, sent or filed which document this time.
Even if this restructuring proves to be difficult for most existing companies and, in the eyes of social collaboration pioneers, there is little worse than a piecemeal relocation of individual processes - which can only replace existing processes and therefore brings little progress: There are a few individual networked helpers with which digital life or everyday work becomes a whole lot easier.
Simply faster: data exchange via web transfer, collaboration via Dropbox
As soon as data is generated on any computer or with a smartphone, the question arises as to how this data gets off the device. As long as it's just a document of a few megabytes that needs to be moved from the work computer to the private notebook, for example, the solution is simple: via email, if necessary via WhatsApp or Apple's system-integrated data services such as AirDrop or iCloud or the counterparts of other operating systems. Things become more interesting when larger amounts of data come together and involve images or videos, for example.
One option is Dropbox. The free file hosting service stores data on a server and works on a fairly simple principle. According to the symbol of a box that sits around on the Internet, the user can put as many things or data into it as will fit. The online box is accessed directly from the Internet Desk out of. Specifically, after registration, a folder is installed on the device, which synchronizes over the Internet with a folder on the Dropbox server.
The highlight: Dropbox works on all common operating systems; There is a Dropbox app for mobile devices. For example, if you put a folder with vacation pictures from your PC into Dropbox, it can be viewed on all connected devices - on your smartphone, on your notebook or on your tablet. If you want to share the holiday pictures, folders can also be shared - and even if someone doesn't have the program installed, they can view the pictures in the browser using the link sent. It is also possible to log in to the Dropbox site - so data can also be edited or shared from a third-party device. This makes it possible to edit documents together with several people, view photos or send films. Presentations can also be created with Dropbox. Two gigabytes of storage space is currently included, which can be expanded to a maximum of 16 gigabytes with a bonus program. If you need more storage, you can subscribe to the professional version for a monthly fee, which currently offers a terabyte of storage volume.
However, there is a drawback. Experts repeatedly criticize the unencrypted storage of the data, so that in theory employees of the company “Dropbox Inc” or secret services would have access to it. With Dropbox Business, the company offers an encrypted service with which teams with up to five users can operate an account, have unlimited storage space and can use various business functions. Alternatives that function similarly or almost identically are Google Drive, SugarSync, Microsoft's OneDrive or FileSync - two Dropbox competitors, Box and SpiderOak, have entered the race and primarily advertise the secure, encrypted storage of data.
Just remember everything: Evernote, Paper or Notes
Admittedly, no app will be able to replace the small yellow paper sticky notes, which have been available in all colors of the rainbow for some time now. They save thoughts, appointments and to-do lists even when the battery is empty, the computer is off or there is simply no time to create smartphone calendar entries. Nevertheless, as in many other situations in life, the same applies: the measure decides whether it makes sense or nonsense. Everyone probably knows a colleague whose monitor has practically disappeared into the chaos of yellow pieces of paper. Once a certain amount of information is reached, things become confusing - there is a need for order. Resourceful digital skeptics then use the so-called bullet journal, which can be made from pretty much any notebook.
Instructions for this are available on the Internet, where you can of course also find many digital note-taking apps. What they all have in common is a search function that allows you to quickly search through the contents of the respective digital notes and find specific topics - even if they are spread across several different notes. Anyone who grew up with paper, lives a digital life willy-nilly, but somehow still mourns the analogue charm of notebooks should take a look at the Paper app from “53”, which is only available for iPad and iPhone. With a stylus, a pen-shaped input device for computers and PDAs, you can draw and paint, but also create info graphics, integrate photos and “paint” to-do lists. The pen, also developed by “53”, recognizes the ball of the hand and thus prevents anything other than the pen tip from leaving marks on the note. So using it feels quite organic; The sketches, drawings and handwritten notes can be collected, sorted and archived in virtual notebooks.
If you don't value pen-like input, you can take a closer look at the notes app provided on iOS-supported Apple devices, which can also be sorted into folder-like “notebooks”. For users who only have Apple devices, cloud synchronization is interesting, as it allows, for example, a note to flutter from the iPhone to the notebook in no time. Google offers a cross-system service that collects small notepads, synchronizes them on all possible devices with all common systems and filters content using the famous Google search function. The company “Moleskine”, which has become known for its notebooks, also offers an app – but it only works on mobile devices.
Evernote is a discipline in itself. At first glance, the software, which is available for all possible systems and device types, is nothing more than a program for collecting and saving notes. Similar to the note-taking programs that are preinstalled on computers and smartphones, all sorts of data can be collected on individual virtual notes. Ideas can be recorded in the form of text, illustrated with photos from within the app, to-do lists can be created with small boxes to check off and, on mobile devices, handwritten notes can even be added using the touchscreen. These virtual sticky notes, which can take on very elongated shapes depending on the type and scope of the idea, can then be sorted into notebooks. The free version comes with a monthly upload volume; If you want to upload more or use Evernote for work, you can increase the volume by paying monthly.
What's amazing is the search function, which can even read handwritten notes and search scanned manuscripts - provided you moderate your search to a level that borders on generally readable. Even in the free basic version, notes can be shared and edited with other Evernote users. The business version, which according to Evernote's statement is currently used by over 20,000 companies, charges a monthly fee per user and, in addition to the common free functions, enables discussions in the app and collaborative work with various business tools. With a little imagination, resourceful users can convert the basic version into a powerful project management program.
At the end of this part, a basic note: This article is only intended to provide an overview and is in no way intended to provide purchase or download recommendations. The manufacturers of the respective software offer up-to-date information about the use of their product on their homepages - so that the interested reader can decide for himself which social collaboration tools make sense for him.