Project Name: 

Distance Collaboration Tools

Project Mission & Goals: 

Document tools that far-flung members of the Pac Rim Studio

and AfH can use to better collaborate with each other.

Process, Tools & Methods 

• Research and experiment with online collaboration tools. 
• Interview people who have previously worked on distributed projects to identify best practices.
• Create catalog of resources and web links.
• Experiment with organizing a meeting among some Pac Rim Studio members to share ideas. 

Final Deliverables: 

Document that analyzes several available options and makes recommendations for

which tools are best suited for which uses. 

Detailed users' guides for a few tools that explain best practices in how and under what circumstances

to use them, how to set up the room, etc.

Pac Rim Studio Contribution: 

Improve ability of geographically distributed teams to share information and collaborate

more effectively with each other.

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Challenges in information sharing arise when working on a distributed team:

 - Who else is working on the same issues that I am?

 - What information might others have that could help me?

 - How do I learn that information from them?

There are many online tools that can help improve team communication:

IDEA/DOCUMENT SHARING

 - Multiple people can view and contribute to content

 - Asynchronous

 - Typically has permissions hierarchy

  Wikis

   - Best for unstructured text sharing

   - pbworks.com

   - moodle.org

  Discussion groups

   - Interactive question posing & answering (with "push" capabilities)

   - Over time, rich content archives develop on specific topics

   - Drupal  

   - BigTent

  Structured document sharing

   - Spreadsheets, lists, presentations, and other document types

   - Google Docs

WEB / VIDEO CONFERENCING

 - Synchronous (real-time)

 - Large group – meeting presenter pushes information

 - Small group – more collaborative meeting

 - Share documents/desktops/applications for viewing, as well as audio/visual connection

  Web conferencing

   - No video of participants

   - ReadyTalk (uses dial-in for high quality audio)

   - Most videoconferencing engines can do this too

  Online video conferencing

   - Audio/video transmitted over Internet

   - Cost low, quality variable

   - WebEx

   - Skype

   - Windows Meeting Space / NetMeeting

   - MegaMeeting

   - Oovoo

  Dedicated video conferencing

   - Special hardware plus dedicated bandwidth

   - Expensive, but highest quality corporate solution

   - Works well for larger groups

   - e.g., Polycom

REMOTE DESKTOP ACCESS

  - Very close interaction with trusted collaborators

   - Can be effective for demonstrating particular skills/apps

   - Windows Remote Desktop

   - LogMeIn

   - TeamViewer