3 Options for Sharing Your Project Research

When it comes to collaborative projects, there’s one area where I’ve found it particularly easy to trip up, especially if you’re working with a team you never see in person. As you put together the initial research for a project — maybe interview notes for a series of blog posts, great examples for a web site design, or the figures for a marketing plan — keeping the information organized and accessible for everyone involved can be a major hassle.

In the past, I primarily used wikis for this sort of information organization, but they really aren’t the best tool for the job. Considering how many tools can simply save web pages or otherwise collect information without requiring you to cut, paste and format it, it’s far faster to move beyond a basic wiki. And if you have a team member who isn’t particularly technically savvy, an option with a shallower learning curve than a wiki is probably good. Here are a few choices that could be useful.

Evernote

Evernote‘s web application provides a particularly easy way to capture information in just about any format. You can capture photos, add videos, and search it easily — and organize it into notebooks. Until recently, you had the option of keeping notebooks private or publishing them to the web for anyone to see. A recent upgrade to the application, however, makes it possible to make the notebook accessible to specific individuals, making it an easy way to collect information for a project like a web site redesign: Have the various people involved save web sites that they feel are good examples for the project, save copy that you’ll need to reference ,and organize any other information relevant to the project all in one place.

The only downside to sharing notebooks on Evernote is that, for the time being, the feature only works on the web-based application. If you’re using one of the many handheld or desktop versions of Evernote, you’ll have to go to the web to make use of a shared notebook. However, as Evernote has been very good about rolling features out to mobile platforms so far, I think there’s a good chance that it’ll expand the shared notebook feature to other versions in the future.

Archivd

If you’re working on comparing options across several web sites, such as researching a new piece of software for your company’s use, Archivd has some particularly useful features. Using the application’s bookmarklet, you can save a web site, as well as specify the information you’ll want to compare — like price or feature sets. It can also automatically extract information from web sites. Archivd is particularly easy to get someone new to web applications started with, although it may be less useful if your research includes significant amounts of information that aren’t available on web sites.

WebAsyst

Adding files to your research, such as older versions of a project you’re updating, is one of the key features of WebAsyst. The site allows you to add any kind of text note and organize it quickly. You can set your notes to be shared with specific individuals, and you limit exactly what is shared with whom. WebAsyst also offers the option of using the web-based application, or downloading the software and setting it up on your own server. If you need an internal system for your company, WebAsyst makes setting it particularly easy.

What tools do you use for sharing project research?

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