Collaborating Online

Applications running online, are also called services, software as a service (SaaS), or platforms. All of these collaborative suites run online, so it does not matter which operating system you use They can be used from desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile

TIP Collaborating online is easiest when everyone uses the same tools.

The Back Story

Collaborating traditionally required a group of people to be in the same space. The infrastructure of the internet now provides that space. During the last ten years, online services have developed that allow groups of people to collaborate in a multitude of ways. Scrapbooking (Facebook), Diaries (Instagram, Twitter), and Blogs/Vlogs (WordPress, Youtube, Tik Tok) led the way in collaboration tools and shaped a lot of our thinking and behaviour. They were considered suitable for fun, non-essential, recreational activities. It was individual activity that occurred in a common space. In line with that attitude, business had been slow to engage (for many different reasons).

These communal online spaces accustomed us to working within a group online and revealed the potential for aggregative work but in the tools weren’t collaborative. When pandemic responses undertaken globally in 2020 forced workforces to stay home that attitude shifted. Keeping colleagues away from the shared spaces that they were accustomed to normalised the need for business to utilise online resources. The demand for online collaborative tools exploded.

We’ll look at two broad groups of tools: office suites and project management tools.

Office Suites

Collaboration tools suitable for businesses of all sizes, across all sectors, are readily available. Driven by the huge influx of income and demand during the last two years, the range, quality, and functionality of these services has improved enormously.

We look at suites of collaboration tools from three service providers: Google, Microsoft, and Zoho.

TIP All of these providers offer a free account to individuals. Highly recommended.
TRAP Having four or five individual accounts is not the same as having a team account

Costs

Costs correct at February 2022
Provider Plan Name Team of 4 Monthly
Microsoft 365 Business Basics NZ$365 $7.60 per user per month
Google Workspace Business Starter NZ$432 $9 per user per month
Zoho Workplace One AU$192 $4 per user per month *

* Zoho has a free plan for up to five users. The ceiling limits on use are low.

Privacy and Data Privacy

Companies have very odd attitudes to privacy. It is strongly influenced by the boggling amounts of money that can be made from information.

Data Privacy

Most companies have a “you created it you own it” attitude to the content you bring or generate on the platform. They are very good at preserving that data and ensuring that it is secure.

Facebook, now Meta, and all of its companies, say that anything that you post or create on their platforms belongs to them. You agreed with that when you first set up your account.

Metadata

Things get weird when we enter the grey area called meta-data. Most companies insist that the meta-data belongs to them. They don’t need to ask your permission to make use of a lot of information about you.

The European Union introduced the GDPR and it means that many companies are now more open about what they do with meta-data and other data.

Project Management Tools

There are general purpose