Harmon.ie provides an interface for Microsoft SharePoint directly within Outlook. It simplifies collaboration and document version control by letting users send live links to SharePoint documents, rather than emailing individual docs that are hard to manage. Users can edit, rate, or tag documents, and see and manage previous versions, all directly inside Outlook. According to the developers, enterprises that have large investments in SharePoint have found that using Harmon.ie has increased end-user SharePoint adoption from 30 percent to as high as 80 percent..

Harmon.ie 3.0, being released Tuesday in beta, adds social features that recognize that collaboration is about people as much as documents. The new “people” tab in the Harmon.ie sidebar lets users see colleagues’ profiles and availability. Presence notifications are geared toward work environments, since they can be used to show what project or document an individual is working on. The people tab also displays a multi-threaded activity stream, and lets workers call, chat or video conference using Microsoft Lync/OCS, Lotus Sametime or Cisco UC.

Harmon.ie 3.0 also simplifies the creation of ad-hoc groups centered around a specific task. The “suggested colleagues” feature recommends possible group members based on the frequency of interaction (by email, chat or voice) and by whether they have co-authored or co-edited documents in the past.

Since Simon wrote about Harmon.ie a few months ago, several other apps have added some similar features to the email interface, for the simple reason that many workers in the enterprise spend a lot of their time there. Xobni, for example, offers “gadgets” for such enterprise collaboration tools as SharePoint, and several services, notably Rapportive and Gist, provide social connections directly from the email interface. And for organizations that don’t use SharePoint, Egnyte recently announced tools for file-sharing within Outlook.

Harmon.ie 3.0 is currently available in beta. The free version includes the SharePoint interface, but does not include the social features. The enterprise version of the software, which includes the social components, is priced at $125 per user, or on a subscription basis for $50 per user per year. In addition to the SharePoint version, the developer also offers a version for Lotus Notes, and another for Google Docs, although the latter does not currently include social features.

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• The Future of Work Platforms: An Overview
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1. Overcoming “hidden” conflicts. An obvious and undeniable challenge with managing an entirely virtual team is a lack of visual cues and body language when communicating that can trigger misunderstandings. But less obviously, frequent misinterpretations can chip away at someone’s confidence or comfort level, creating tensions that are hard to name and even harder to address. In one virtual work situation I’ve experienced, all the team members were only privy to what they read in emails or heard on the phone for nearly a year before the company brought everyone to the same location for a retreat. Just sharing moments in a physical space melted away much of the negative energy that was damaging the remote interactions. At this gathering, one person even said to me that just seeing my eyes showed them more kindness than my terse email messages conveyed. Ouch! What an important lesson to learn about e-communications and the human touch.
2. Building stronger bonds. Nothing can strengthen the bonds between team members in the same way as physical presence. I will never deny the incredible power of online communications and online community, but the bottom line is that we are social creatures. We crave belonging, being near others, not being alone. Virtual work can thrust even the heartiest of us into isolation, and the only real way to solve that isolation with lasting effects is a face-to-face meeting. It may not be feasible to bring an entire company to a single place due to the number of people involved or budget constraints. But maybe it is realistic to arrange gatherings of smaller teams or to put together a schedule of in-person meetings over the course of a year — even a series of one-on-one meetings. Another possible solution is to have team members meet up at industry events, several at a time, for both bonding and learning.
3. Delivering really bad news. If your company is in crisis, it is not the time to send out a short email that can be misconstrued or a long email that is confusing and triggers panic. Find a way to get everyone together in one place to drop the bomb. If getting everyone in a single physical space isn’t doable, you should have smaller groups meeting physically or management meeting team members individually. And if those options aren’t possible either, use the best virtual workplace solution you can find, be it a virtual world or virtual meeting space with video. An audio conference call? Barely a step above an email. Be a more solid presence to cushion the blow.
4. Delivering really good news. If you’ve got something big to report, do it when everyone is together on that big client pitch or the company retreat. Small wins can be shared well in email or on weekly calls, but the huge wins deserve more presence to infuse the team with the power of the accomplishment. When you’re managing a team of remote workers, the wins somehow seem a lot smaller than the losses, and over time that dynamic can drain morale and affect productivity. Surround good news with as much “physical” fanfare as possible. People often need something tangible to hold onto. Provide mementos of the big wins that they can take back to their remote workplaces to remind them of being a part of something real and positive.

In our everyday work, far from our team members, face-to-face and in-person may simply not be affordable. Invest in a quality virtual meeting space or conference tool, whether it’s iMeet, Google Talk, Skype, Second Life or any of the myriad solutions out there. Let your team test several of those solutions with you, and get their feedback before making a final purchase and rolling out the technology. Let your workers be just as invested in being present as you are.

What other situations warrant face-to-face and what do you do when you can’t be there?

Image courtesy of stock.xchng user irum

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Since I last wrote about VoxOx, it has improved considerably. The basic functionality works well. Incoming calls work fine; outgoing calls are available at competitive rates.

It’s been rebranded, and its screens are no longer the hideous and hard-to-see colors that they were in the last version. Managing one’s contacts has improved, and the service has some cool new features, like:

• A free iNum, which is a special toll-free number that can be called globally.
• The ability to share files of up to 100MB via chat, SMS or email.
• A “universal translator” for translating instant messages on the fly.

Unfortunately, with an app that does this much, I suppose it’s inevitable that there will be shortcomings.

• There is still no integration with my existing contact lists from Google, social networks, or the Mac Address Book. In fact, there is still no way to import or export contact information.
• VoxOx doesn’t yet let you port your existing phone number to its service.
• While VoxOx supports Skype messaging, you must have the Skype software open for this to work. That’s a limitation of Skype, and not really VoxOx’s fault.
• While the interface is definitely more readable than it used to be, the Mac version doesn’t use native font rendering, so screen text is poorly displayed.
• VoxOx doesn’t use oAuth or equivalent systems, so you must give the program your login information for the IM and social network accounts you add.
• VoxOx is pushy. The software registers itself to start automatically on boot, and although you can turn this setting off, it should ask before adding itself to autostart. And whenever you add an account to the program, the option marked “Invite my contacts to VoxOx” is checked by default. I unchecked it, only to find that it was checked again the next time I entered that preference screen.
• Surprisingly, there are no mobile apps for Android or iOS, and there isn’t even a mobile-friendly version of the VoxOx website. Apps are said to be in development.

I could live with many of these issues, but the inability to import and sync contacts is a deal-breaker for me. There’s no way that I can enter 1,600+ contacts!

VoxOx has promise, but I don’t think that it’s quite ready for professional use yet. Maybe by version 3 I’ll be able to use it regularly.

Have you used VoxOx? How do you manage your communications?

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There are plenty of chat tools out there, but using one that is purely meant for internal business communication has its benefits — at the very least, your team won’t be distracted by friends and family on one of the broader networks. HipChat is a group chat tool built specifically with companies and project-oriented teams in mind.

More Than IM

If HipChat were just a simple instant messaging client, it might not be that useful, but it also includes video and voice chat. Robert Dippell, who uses HipChat at Praetorian Group, says, “We have used generic chat services in the past that really only allowed us to send messages back and fourth to supplement longer emails or a phone call. HipChat doesn’t supplement those mediums, it streamlines our communication and in many cases even replaces the desire to send a long email chain or hold a conference call when the same goal can be accomplished and archived using the service.”

HipChat integrates a variety of other features beyond voice and video chat: records of past chats, file transfers and even an API to allow automatic notifications of what your team is doing. Dippell notes, “We use the service often to not only share but archive different files such as images, PDFs, word files, spreadsheets and miscellaneous links. By posting any of that content within a personal chat or room the content is stored there to refer back to down the road. It’s easy to see the progression of a project when you look through the archive and can open past files to review progress…We’ve encouraged our different departments to open and participate in rooms specific to their duties. For example, our production team gets a lot of questions from account managers and sales about inventory availability and scheduling. Rather than send an email to multiple people they can simply pop into the Production room and ask their question directly to the team members available to help them.”

Getting the Most Out of HipChat

Dru Nelson uses HipChat in his work at Brightroll. The engineering team there relies on the IM tool to keep everyone in sync. Nelson is careful to point out that the usefulness of a chat tool and HipChat in particular depends on an organization’s workflow and whether you some time is invested into using it effectively: “We tried introducing it to other groups, but it didn’t make sense for their workflow. One easy thing for companies to learn now is how to properly use online chat rooms within teams. There are many articles online talking about the benefits. Regardless of your organization size, the sooner you learn how to use these tools, the better.”

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What’s nice is that each member of the team doesn’t need to register for a Donut account to use it. Just one team member registers and becomes the administrator of the account. Everyone else can sign into Donut with existing OpenID, Twitter or Facebook credentials. If you want to open your chat room to the public, you can allow guests to sign in without a password.

Donut Chat Options

Like most apps. chatters can send private messages to each other. Users can share files; videos from YouTube, Vimeo and MetaFilter and photos from Flickr.

Administrator options for managing a user

For the most part, it takes little work to dive into Donut. Enter the chat room and it’s all straightforward. Nonetheless, the administrator faces a couple of user interface challenges and confusing features. For example, I banned one of my IDs and then couldn’t figure out how to remove the ban. Each room comes with its own settings, which I overlooked because the interface is different for administrators and users. Managing bans is accomplished under the room settings, which also allow the administrator to password protect the room, rename the room and change the topic. Other administrator options include “kick” (temporary removal from the room), “ban” (permanent removal) and “make moderator.”

Donut Chat Room Settings

The other confusing feature is “Login Access.” Donut has three login access options available. “New registrations” allows a user to sign up as a member of the chat; no one else can use that person’s member name. “Guest logins” lets anyone sign in without a password. “Allow member logins” lets members with a reserved name sign in.

To set up Donut in Facebook, first sign up at Donut and then go to Donut’s Facebook page to grab the app. I set up a Facebook page and added a tab for the chat, so you’re welcome to try Donut Chat’s Facebook feature (note: the chat can only hold up to 10 people, in case you can’t get in). Here’s a quick screencast that shows you how to add Donut Chat to your Facebook page and assign moderator rights:

Donut has a free Starter plan that allows for two chat rooms, room for 10 chatters and sharing of files up to 10 MB. The free plan is enough for a small team or a one-person business that wants to keep the door open for clients and colleagues. Other plans range from $12 per month up to $99 per month. The paid plans offer the ability to use the iPhone / iPod touch with Donut Chat, add password protection and integrate the chat with third-party apps.

What do you think of Donut Chat and its Facebook feature?

After my recent post about the betas I use, I was introduced to Nimbuzz, an IM program that is now offering voice services in competition with Skype and Gizmo5 (which was recently purchased by Google).

The origins of Nimbuzz are in Europe. It claims a 20 percent market share in several European countries, and it’s popular in the Middle East. The company says that it has 12 million users, and is adding 40,000 users per day — not bad for a service that’s less than two years old. Nimbuzz is less well known in North America, but that may soon change.

Nimbuzz Mobile

Nimbuzz focuses much of its effort on developing mobile clients for a wide variety of mobile phones, including the iPhone/iPod touch, Android systems, and BlackBerry (a native BlackBerry app is new today). Nimbuzz clients are available in several languages.

The Nimbuzz Mobile client supports the IM services one would expect (Windows Live/MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ); social networking chat (Facebook, MySpace); plus some services not often seen in North America, but which are popular elsewhere (the VZ Networks, Gadu-Gadu, Hyves, Giovani).

The client also allows you to make VoIP calls using any SIP account (like Gizmo5), Skype, or its own NimbuzzOut service. Nimbuzz claims that its international calling rates are cheaper than Skype’s.

I found the Nimbuzz mobile client for iPhone/iPod touch to be attractive and easy to use. Both the IM and voice functions work well. I have some minor grumbles, which I’m told will be remedied in upcoming versions.

• In order to make voice calls, the phone number to be dialed must be entered into your device’s address book in full international format — like +1 (555) 555-1212. However, one can’t edit this data directly from Nimbuzz.
• The client supports only one account per service, so if you have, say, two Google Talk accounts, you must pick one.
• Nimbuzz does not yet support GTalk for Google Apps accounts.
• I was recently required to change my GTalk password due to “suspicious activity,” but Nimbuzz for iPhone doesn’t seem to have a way to change service passwords. I had to delete the GTalk account in the client, then re-create it.

Nimbuzz for Mac

The developers at Nimbuzz say that they are “big Apple fans,” and it shows. The Nimbuzz Mac client comes close to the elegance of Adium. I hope the program will maintain its Mac-friendly design as it matures. The Windows version looks good, too, although I haven’t tested it.

The desktop client has most of the features and limitations of the mobile version, although it doesn’t yet support voice calling or Skype chat. It also doesn’t share data with the mobile version, which would be nice, so as to avoid having to input account data more than once. And I would have liked to have seen integration with the Mac Address Book app.

Nimbuzz also offers a web version, which isn’t as full-featured as some other web-based IM services, such as Meebo.

Nimbuzz doesn’t work with Twitter, although I think that’s a good thing. Twitter isn’t a messaging service, it’s a microblogging service, and I have found that Twitter functions in IM clients don’t work very well.

I’m very encouraged by the development of Nimbuzz so far. The company tells me that, instead of adding features willy-nilly, they have chosen to “do it right.”I can certainly agree with that in principle, although given the speed with which other apps are being created and updated, let’s hope that Nimbuzz can keep pace.

Have you tried the new Nimbuzz BlackBerry client? Let us know what you think of it below.

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And that’s not to mention just walking down the hall to talk to someone in person, which is not an option for a lot of web workers.

So, given all the choices: which ones do you actually use to communicate with friends, family, clients, and co-workers? And how do you decide? Is it technical superiority, multi-platform availability, installed base, or something else? Do you find different chat tools work better for different tasks or types of conversations? Or are you firmly stuck in a model where realtime chat wastes your time, and you settle for email, or picking up the telephone when you really need to talk to someone?

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1. Get a Unified Client. Assuming that you have contacts spread across multiple services (as most of us do), the first thing to do is to get a unified client to cut down on the number of applications that you have to run at one time. This also gets rid of time spent flipping through interfaces, trying to remember whether Jane was on MSN or GTalk. I’m using Adium (OS X only) at the moment; in the past, I’ve had success with Trillian or Miranda on Windows as well. These solutions aren’t ideal – I’d love to find something that aggregates all the chats I’m in – but they help.

2. Shove it Off to the Side: Unless chatting is your business, you need to put the chat windows somewhere that they won’t obscure whatever code or other project you’re actually working on. I run all of my communication applications on my laptop, which sits off to the side of my desktop monitors. That puts them close at hand, but ensures that they don’t overlap whatever I’m trying to see. I’m seriously considering adding a second monitor to the laptop to get more pixels for chat windows. If you don’t have a second computer, consider putting the chat windows on their own monitor, or at least a second workspace.

3. Set up Attention Flags: Particularly if you’re monitoring chat rooms, you probably don’t need to watch every message flow by. I’ve found it helpful to use software (like Conversation for IRC, or the Growl notification Greasemonkey script for Campfire, that can make a noise when my name (or a keyword) is mentioned.

4. Keep Logs: Disk space is cheap. Time spent trying to remember what was said, or embarrassment in having to ask contacts to repeat themselves, is expensive. Accordingly, I make sure to use clients that can log everything – and keep the logs. Surprisingly often I find myself searching these for a tip, URL, or action item.

I don’t claim to have the perfect strategy, but doing these things helps me keep up an active bunch of online communications while still managing to write code. What tips do you have to add for online conversation management?

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Here are tips starting with the most basic to help you get the most from Gtalk.

1. Access GTalk on the web or on your desktop. Sign into chat in Gmail (shown at right), run the Google Chat Gadget, use the downloadable application for Windows, or try a third-party instant messaging client like iChat that supports Jabber. Here’s a list of some of the clients that you can use to access Google Talk capabilities. Go to the main Google talk page for the gadget or the Windows download.

2. Try an IM aggregator. If you have some friends on Google Talk, some on AIM, some on MSN, some on Yahoo!, it’s nice to use a client that makes them all available in one interface. Popular IM aggregators that allow you to chat on the Google Talk network include Trillian (Windows, with iPhone and Mac OSX in alpha test), Pidgin (Windows and Unix), and Adium (Mac OS X).

3. Get Gtalk to go. Try Google Talk for Blackberry, MGTalk for mobile phones that run Java, OctroTalk for Windows Mobile, or fring for Symbian or Windows Mobile.

4. Put it in your browser sidebar. It’s pretty easy to put the Google Talk Gadget into your sidebar. The Google Operating System blog provides a clickable link in this blog post that you save into your bookmarks. Then when you click it, it loads into the sidebar. An Opera version is available too. (Scroll down to the bottom of the post to get to the links that will create a bookmark for you.)

5. Make voice calls from one PC to another. To make voice calls with Google Talk, you need to download and install the Windows client, available on the Google Talk home page. And the person you’re calling needs to have the client installed too. Then, just find the person in your Friends list that you want to call and click on the phone icon next to his or her name.

6. Send a voice mail. (Windows client only). You can send one whether your friend’s logged into Google Talk or not. Your voice mail shows up as an mp3 file in your contact’s Gmail inbox. Just call a contact and let it ring, or access the options menu for your friend’s contact record and select Send voicemail.

7. Get notified of important events. (Windows client only). It can notify you of incoming Gmail and when someone in your Friends list comes online.

8. Transfer files. (Windows client only). If you’re using the client and so is your friend, you’ll see a Send Files button next to their name in your friends list.

9. Add an avatar. Upload your photo or other avatar using the General tab of Gmail settings. You can make it visible to everyone or only to your Gtalk contacts.

10. Auto-add email contacts to chat. By default, if you’re a Gmail user and a Gtalk user, the contacts you email often will be added to your Gtalk contact list. If you don’t like this behavior, you can change it in the Gmail Settings > Chat tab, by selecting “Only allow people that I’ve explicitly approved to chat with me and see when I’m online” in the “Auto-add suggested contacts:” area.

11. Save chat history in your Gmail account. Then you can search them just by searching your email. By default, this option is enabled, but you can turn it off in the Gmail Settings > Chat tab.

12. Get a sound notification when someone starts to chat with you. You need Flash installed on your computer. By default this is enabled; use the Gmail Settings > Chat tab to turn it off.

13. Chat with AOL Instant Messenger contacts. This week Google rolled out AIM integration so you can chat with your AOL Instant Messenger buddies right from the Gmail chat capability. You need to have an AIM account to use it and you can only be signed in with one AIM screen name at a time.

14. Chat with multiple people at once. In June of this year, Google introduced group chat into the Google Talk Gadget but it wasn’t available in the Gmail chat capability until the end of last month. To use it from Gmail, start chatting with someone, then choose “Group Chat” from the options menu at the bottom of the chat window. From the Talk Gadget, you’ll see Group Chat at the top of the messaging tab when you start chatting with someone.

15. Use animated emoticons. The gadget and Gmail chat offer a menu with three different styles of animated emoticons — circle, square, and basic made of ascii characters.

16. Put smarts at your fingertips. Now that you can sign into your AIM account from the Gmail chat, you can access the AIM-based tool SmarterChild that gives you a command line type interface to do a bunch of useful things like calculations or setting reminders or answer questions. Lifehacker editor Gina Trapani shows you all the cool things you can find out from it, including getting sports team schedules, accessing dictionary definitions, or checking your horoscope for the day. All you have to do is add SmarterChild as an AIM buddy and say “hi” to get started.

17. Get productive with IMified. IMified lets you access your favorite productivity tools from your IM client, whether you use the Gmail chat, the Google Talk Gadget, an IM aggregator, or something else. Add imified@imified.com as a contact to Google Talk. Send “help” and you’ll get a menu to get your account set up. Then with short commands you can access tools ranging from del.icio.us to Remember the Milk to your Google Calendar to Twitter and more.

For example, I have my Google Calendar set up on my IMified account. So I just pick Anne’s Google Calendar from the main menu and it gives me the option of adding an event or viewing the calendar.

You can use IMified with a bunch of other IM networks too.

Bonus. Chat with Yahoo! and MSN buddies with your favorite Google Talk client. Since Gtalk is based on Jabber, you can hook it up to your MSN and Yahoo! messenger accounts too. You’ll have to download another client to get it set up, but after you do that you can use whatever Gtalk client you like best — Gmail, Gtalk Gadget, or other. Here are detailed instructions to make it work.

Are you a Gtalk user? Share your own tips in the comments.

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Seriously, IM can take up your entire day if you let it. Those who stay away from it can get a lot more done.

However, if done right, IM can be a great tool for connecting with others, networking, getting things done quickly, and being productive. I’ve been experimenting with different methods recently, and I’d like to share some of the best tips.

1. Limit your time. If you do IM all day long, it’ll be a constant interruption. If you find that people are constantly pinging you, put your status as “busy”. It’s best to have a certain time of day when you make yourself available for IM … and let your friends know this as well, so they can reach you at that time if needed. I suggest an hour a day.

2. Have a purpose. Unless you have time to kill, don’t chat just to chat. Start a chat session with someone if you have a purpose in mind (that purpose could be just to check in with a friend you haven’t talked to in awhile, but I suggest you limit these kinds of chat). If you know your purpose, you can avoid getting sidetracked and avoid idle talk.

3. Get to the point. While it may seem friendlier to start out by asking about the person’s day, and their family, and their job, and their cat … it wastes a lot of time if you do this many times a day. Instead, say hi, but then get straight to the point … ask a question, state a proposal, ask a favor, etc. To limit small talk from others, immediately ask them, “What can I do for you today?” or something along those lines that prompts them to get to the point.

4. Be concise. While it’s important to be concise in email, in IM it’s even more important. Sure, you’re in the moment, typing away, and don’t have time to edit, but if you’re verbose in chat, people will stop wanting to talk to you.

5. Know when to use IM. There are times when IM is best, when email is best, when the phone is best, etc. Get to know when IM is the best way to communicate. Most times, it’s not, but if you just need a quick response, or if there will be many back-and-forth emails (more than twice), use chat.

6. Stay with one chat service. I know people who jump from one chat service to another, going back and forth. That’s way too much trouble, and stressful. I know others who use Gaim and the like, so they can chat with many many people on multiple services. Better, but still too overloaded. If you can help it, stick with one service that your key friends are on. If not, go with an all-in-one service like Gaim (now known as Pidgin).

7. Limit your friends. Even if you can have a million friends on IM (especially if you combine services), that doesn’t mean you should. I recommend sticking to just a core group of friends you need or want to chat with on a daily basis. Trim your friends list down to those who need to be on there.

8. Block unproductive friends. This tip may sound harsh, but there are many people who just want to chat with you all the time, with no real purpose. These are not good chat friends — they might be good friends in real life, but they waste your time on chat. Block them (if you need to, send them a polite message explaining that you’re cutting back on using chat because you’re trying to get more done).

9. Respect others’ time. Conversely, you don’t want to be a chat friend who wastes your friends’ time. Realize that your friends are likely to be busy people (who isn’t?) and if you chat with them, keep it brief and show that you are considerate of their time.

10. Be friendly. On the other hand, being brief and respecting others’ time doesn’t mean you have to be rude. Chat is a particularly social medium (as opposed to email), and as such, you need to be at least a little friendly, especially if you’re friends with the person. Don’t eschew all greetings and politeness, but don’t overdo it either.

11. Say thank you or congrats. Sometimes, a great way to use chat is just to get in touch with someone to say thank you for something they’ve done for you, or to congratulate them on something that they’ve done or that has happened to them. It’s a fast way to show you care, and to stay in touch. And people appreciate a kind word now and then.

12. Bounce ideas off people. One of the best and most productive ways to use chat. Got an idea? Bounce it off a friend to get instant feedback. Much better than implementing the idea and getting the feedback afterwards.

13. Ask for quick favors. Another productive use of chat … need something real quick? Just ask.

14. Switch to email. If chat turns into a discussion that would be better if you could give it some thought, take the discussion to email. Tell the person you’d like to think about it, and that you’ll email them. Be sure to follow through!

15. Use group chat. If you need to discuss something with a group of people, where questions are asked, ideas are bounced off everyone in the group, etc … consider using a group chat instead. See tips on using group chat.

16. End it quickly. Once you’re done with what you came to do (your purpose), don’t dilly dally. Thank the person, let them know you need to go (no reason is necessary), and end it.

17. Think action. Chat can devolve into a lot of small talk if you aren’t clear on what you’re talking about. Crystallize your conversation by focusing on actions … what you need to do, what you’d like the other person to do, what actions are next, after the chat is over.

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