The shared family photo album with your siblings, the holiday calendar in the department or the smartphone shopping list for the whole family: social collaboration, or social business collaboration, is part of everyday life. People work together online on a wide variety of projects every day, both professionally and privately. Thanks to the ever-present cloud, fast internet connections and almost unlimited application possibilities, this is unlikely to be just a trend, but rather the future of collaboration.
“Social Collaboration”: Software for private projects, small businesses and larger companies
To help you keep track of project-based networking, in this short series we present various ways to take advantage of social collaboration – whether for private purposes or professional ones. Following a general introduction that outlined the topic and an article about programs that let you manage private and smaller work-related projects from your office chair, we now take a brief look at powerful and scalable applications that could be of interest to experienced private users or smaller companies.
Of course, there is one limitation right from the start: if the principle of “social collaboration” were implemented consistently, the entire company structure would have to be geared towards online networked collaboration. This would require software programmed to meet the specific needs of the business, making it unnecessary to jump back and forth between individual applications. Alternatively, a newly founded company could structure itself around the capabilities of a powerful software solution. One major advantage of consistently applied social collaboration is time savings, because everything comes together in a single interface – such as internal company communication, accounting or the scheduling of individual projects. It also eliminates the time lost trying to remember where you saved, sent or filed which document this time.
Even if this restructuring proves difficult for most existing businesses and, in the eyes of social collaboration pioneers, there is little worse than gradually shifting individual processes – which can only replace existing workflows and therefore brings little progress: there are still a few connected little helpers that make digital life, or rather the working day, a whole lot easier.
Simply faster: data exchange via web transfer, collaboration via Dropbox
As soon as data is created on any computer or smartphone, the question arises of how to get that data off the device. As long as it is only a document of a few megabytes that needs to be moved, for example from a work computer to a private notebook, the solution is simple: by email, if necessary via WhatsApp or Apple’s system-integrated data services such as AirDrop or iCloud, or the equivalents on other operating systems. It becomes more interesting when larger amounts of data are involved, for example with images or videos.
One option is Dropbox. The free file hosting service stores data on a server and works according to a fairly simple principle. In keeping with the image of a box sitting somewhere on the internet, the user can put in as many things, or rather as much data, as will fit. Access to the online box is provided via the internet directly from the desk. In practical terms, after registration a folder is installed on the device, which synchronises over the internet with a folder on the Dropbox server.
The clever part: Dropbox works on all common operating systems; there is also a Dropbox app for mobile devices. So if, for example, you place a folder of holiday photos from your PC into Dropbox, it can then be viewed on all connected devices – on your smartphone, notebook or tablet. If you want to share those holiday photos, folders can also be shared – and even if someone does not have the program installed, they can still view the images in their browser via a link sent to them. Logging in on the Dropbox website is also possible – so data can also be edited or shared from a different device. This makes it possible for several people to work together on documents, look at photos or send films. Presentations can also be created with Dropbox. Two gigabytes of storage are currently included, which can be expanded to a maximum of 16 gigabytes through a bonus programme. Anyone who needs more storage can subscribe to the professional version for a monthly fee, which currently offers one terabyte of storage space.
There is, however, one drawback. Experts repeatedly criticise the fact that data is stored unencrypted, which means that, in theory, employees of “Dropbox Inc” or even intelligence agencies could access it. With Dropbox Business, the company offers an encrypted service that allows teams of up to five users to operate one account, have unlimited storage space available and use various business features. Similar or almost identical alternatives are Google Drive, SugarSync, Microsoft's OneDrive or FileSync – with Box and SpiderOak, two Dropbox competitors have entered the race that advertise above all with the secure, encrypted storage of data.
Remember everything with ease: Evernote, Paper or Notes
Admittedly, no app will be replacing the little yellow sticky notes that have also been available in every colour of the rainbow for some time now any time soon. They keep track of thoughts, appointments and to-do lists even when the battery is dead, the computer is switched off or there simply isn’t enough time to create smartphone calendar entries. Even so, the same rule applies here as in many other situations in life: it all depends on moderation. Everyone probably knows a colleague whose monitor has practically disappeared behind a chaotic sea of yellow notes. Once a certain amount of information builds up, things simply become confusing – what’s needed is order. Resourceful digital sceptics then turn to the so-called bullet journal, which can be created from pretty much any notebook.
You can find instructions for it online, where there are of course also plenty of digital note-taking apps. What they all have in common is a search function that lets you quickly search the content of your digital notes and find specific topics – even if they are spread across several different notes. Anyone who grew up with paper, now leads a digital life nolens volens, but still somehow misses the analogue charm of notebooks should take a look at the Paper app from “53”, which is, however, only available for iPad and iPhone. With a stylus, that is, a pen-shaped input device for computers and PDAs, you can draw and paint with it, but also create infographics, integrate photos and “draw” to-do lists. The pen, also developed by “53”, recognises the palm of your hand and thus prevents anything other than the pen tip from leaving marks on the note. This makes it feel quite organic to use; sketches, drawings and handwritten notes can be collected, organised and archived in virtual notebooks.
If you place less importance on pen-like input, you can take a closer look at the included Notes app on iOS-based Apple devices, which can also be organised into folder-like “notebooks”. For users who only use Apple devices, cloud syncing is an interesting feature, allowing a note to fly from iPhone to notebook in no time at all. Google offers a cross-platform service that collects small notes, syncs them to all kinds of devices with all common operating systems, and filters content using the famous Google search function. The company “Moleskine”, known for its notebooks, also offers an app – although it only works on mobile devices.
Evernote is in a league of its own. At first glance, the software available for all kinds of systems and device types is nothing more than a program for collecting and storing notes. Similar to the note programs preinstalled on computers and smartphones, all kinds of data can be collected on individual virtual note sheets. Ideas can be captured as text, illustrated with photos directly from the app, to-do lists can be created with little boxes to tick off, and on mobile devices, even handwritten notes can be added via touchscreen. These virtual note sheets, which depending on the type and scope of the idea can sometimes become quite lengthy, can then be sorted into notebooks. The free version comes with a monthly upload allowance; if you want to upload more or use Evernote for business, you can increase the allowance with a monthly payment.
What is impressive is the search function, which can even read handwritten notes and search scanned manuscripts – provided you keep your handwriting at a level that borders on generally legible. Even the free basic version allows notes to be shared and edited with other Evernote users. According to Evernote, the Business version is currently used by over 20,000 companies, charges a monthly fee per user and, in return, offers in-app discussions in addition to the usual free features, as well as collaborative work with various business tools. With a little imagination, resourceful users can already turn the basic version into a powerful project management program.
Finally, a general note at the end of this section: This article is intended merely as an overview and in no way as a purchase or download recommendation. The manufacturers of the respective software provide up-to-date information on the use of their product on their homepages – so that interested readers can decide for themselves which social collaboration tools make sense for them.