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Web collaboration tools have developed as a consequence of the World Wide Web which has created communities consisting of people from all over the world.
These can be fans of a music group or television show, a team of freelance collaborators or a group of old friends.
This need has been met by a bewildering variety of options. A web collaboration tool is everything from wikis, mailing lists, file sharing programs, chatrooms, forums, calendar and contact software to teleconference systems and others.
Some are complete programs with multiple components designed to integrate functionality, others are stand-alone, still others are tools intended to allow the user to create the mix of capabilities desired.
This bewildering variety of options can result in paralysis. Thus it helps to have some idea of what each can do.
Wiki software comes in several flavors, but tends to provide a web based front end that allows users to create or edit content. These are, in many ways, the most representative web collaboration tools, as they allow everyone in the authorized group to have input.
Some allow the users to restrict which users have the power to create or approve changes.
Wikis appear to work best with groups of relatively homogenous views and an interest in the subject, or good procedures to cover differences of opinion. They are most suited to teams that can function without constant, real time communication.
Mailing lists, chatrooms, forums, file sharing programs, calendar and contact software are hard to fully characterize as web collaboration tools, but some have capability to share more information than just the base messages.
Yahoo, for instance, provides a free group function, which allows files and pictures to be stored on their servers for distribution to the group.
Yahoo, of course, has rules and there are occasional complaints about how these are enforced. If all to be sent among users are short text messages, mailing lists are sufficient.
Some prefer forums, where they only need to read those discussions that look interesting while others prefer mailing lists that send the information directly to you.
Other groups might care less for message flow and more for files, such as music fans, artists creating 3D or other electronic art or even writers who produce documents too long for most forum or mailing list software to handle.
Those will want to explore file-sharing programs, such as gnutella. When real time information is required, mailing lists or other means that will let users know content is available are favored.
There are dedicated web collaboration tools for business groups and teams, generally combining teleconferencing tools, scheduling tools and means to share briefing files.
Many of these provide free evaluation periods so you may determine if the program meets your exact needs. These are best suited for groups where the information possessed by one will have immediate effects on the input from another.
The requirement for hardware like webcams tends to make this less desirable for groups that have low budgets.
Related Article: Which Free Web Collaboration Provider Will You Choose?
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