GigaOM » Collaboration

GoFileDrop now works with Gmail accounts

Simon Mackie — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:10:24 +0000

GoFileDrop (previously called GoDropBox) is an app that adds a public mailbox to your Google Docs account, enabling anyone with the appropriate link to upload files to your account. It was previously only available to Google Apps customers via the Google Apps marketplace, but it can now be installed by users with regular Gmail accounts.

To install it, just head to the GoFileDrop site and hit the button to add the service to your Gmail account. It works in the same way as the version available for Google Apps users: Once you’ve authorized GoFileDrop to access your account, you’ll be given a unique URL that you can then forward to other people, which allows them to upload files to your Google Docs account through their browser (they can only upload files and don’t have the ability to read or otherwise access your account). The upload page is shown in the screenshot above. It is easy to use and supports drag and drop, allows batch file uploads and file deletion, and shows upload progress. Uploaded files appear immediately in your Google Docs account, and you’re also sent an email notification of any new uploads.

50 MB of data allowance is provided free. Additional data costs £1.75 ($2.86) per GB, with bulk purchase discounts.

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5 steps for effective real-time document collaboration

Terri Griffith — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 21:02:39 +0000

Real-time collaboration on documents is becoming a must-have feature for many knowledge workers. Simon recently reported on new co-authoring capabilities for Microsoft Word Web App, while Google Docs has been in the news with a crowdsourced Tips and Tricks document for Google+.

It’s great to have access to technologies that allow us to collaborate on documents in real time. However, real-time collaboration, in fact all collaborative writing, will be more successful if you follow these five steps to integrate your writing process with your tool’s technical capabilities.

Set the ground rules around writing and editing roles. Is this a free-for-all, or are some people writers, some editors, and others providing comments? There is no one right way for all projects, but for any particular project it is best if everyone knows the ground rules from the beginning.
Create norms around expectations for different stages of the work so people won’t be afraid to start typing. There should be different expectations for alpha (very early stage, not ready for critique), beta (still early stage, but openly welcome to review), late (set structure, review focused on clarification and error correction), and final drafts.
Discuss the time frame for the work. Will the document be completed or reach a new phase of development by the end of the day/session/on-line meeting, or is it a living document that is edited over a long period?
Establish guidelines around who will work on what sections when. Some real-time collaboration tools (including Word Web App) won’t let multiple people work on the same paragraph at the same time — but the collaboration will be smoother if people also have parallel rules in their heads.
Come up with a system for adding comments or noting approval. Will the team use built-in commenting capabilities (if they exist) or just add comments in the text itself? My teams like to use initials to indicate approval of different sections, and initials followed by a comment if there are suggestions or questions.

Given your own experiences in real-time collaboration, what additional tips and tricks would you suggest?

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GoDropBox allows people to upload files to your Google Docs account

Simon Mackie — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:05:48 +0000

UPDATE: GoDropBox has been renamed GoFileDrop.

GoDropBox is a nifty third-party add-on for Google Apps that adds a public mailbox to your Google Docs account, enabling anyone with the appropriate link to upload files to your account. This is handy for web workers who would like to accept files that are too big to email and don’t want to have to use additional file transfer tools.

Once installed via the Google Apps Marketplace, you’ll be given a unique URL that you can then forward to other people, which allows them to upload files to your Google Docs account through their browser (they can only upload files and don’t have the ability to read or otherwise access your account). The upload page is fairly basic, as shown in the screenshot above. It is easy to use and supports drag and drop, allows batch file uploads and can show upload progress. Uploaded files appear immediately in your Google Docs account.

The installed version of GoDropBox is only a trial, offering up to 100 users on a domain just 50 MB of data allowance each. Additional data is priced at $5 for 2 GB per month, $9 for 5 GB per month, or $15 for 10 GB per month (subscriptions can be canceled at any time).

Note: Confusingly, despite the name, this has absolutely nothing to do with file-sync-and-sharing service Dropbox. Also, in order to use it, you’ll have to be a Google Apps user and an admin will have to install it on your domain.

(via Digital Inspiration)

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Harmon.ie adds social collaboration tools to Outlook

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:00:44 +0000

Harmon.ie, a Microsoft Outlook add-on that’s intended to make corporate email more social, is rolling out new social features to aggregate communication, connection and collaboration tasks in one place.

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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Quick Tip: How to Use QuickFox Notes With Google Docs

Simon Mackie — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:04:00 +0000

QuickFox Notes is a great little note-taking add-on for Firefox, packed with an array of features. Its notes can be synced between different machines, and it also works with Simplenote. But by using an extension, you can modify QuickFox Notes to save notes to Google Docs.

Installing an extension to QuickFox Notes is not quite as straightforward as installing a browser add-on. You’ll firstly need to download the extension script, which is found here (right-click, and save it as a .js file). To install the script, open QuickFox Notes and then click on Tools->Add-ons->Open add-ons folder, then move the .js file you downloaded into that folder. You’ll need to restart QuickFox Notes for the change to take effect.

Once restarted, you’ll find that you now have an extra button in your QuickFox Notes window for uploading the note to Google Docs, as shown in the screenshot above. Hitting that button will pop up a window asking for your username and password before saving the note to Google Docs. Note that notes are only saved to Google Docs — this extension does not provide a two-way sync.

(Via Addictive Tips)

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Primadesk Wants to Be a File Manager for the Cloud

Simon Mackie — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:01:27 +0000

The proliferation of cloud storage providers has led to many of us storing our documents using a variety of different providers: Google Docs, Zoho, Dropbox, SugarSync, Pogoplug. Box.net, etc. That makes managing those documents tricky. Moving documents between services isn’t easy, and having to log into several places just to look for one document is inefficient.

Primadesk is a web app that wants to be a kind of desktop file manager for the cloud. By integrating with a variety of cloud storage providers, it allows users to access and manage all of their documents through a single interface. Simply being able to view all of your documents in one place is handy, but the company has now added some new features for the app, such as comprehensive document search capabilities and the ability to copy documents between services using drag-and-drop, that make it much more useful.

When you click on a document to open it, Primadesk actually opens a new browser tab, automatically signs in to the appropriate service, and then takes you to the document. While it’s not quite as seamless or as fast as using, say, Finder on OSX or Explorer on Windows, it does provide a simple and convenient way to search for, and take action on, content that’s stored across many different cloud services. And unlike Joukuu or Gladinet, which are Windows apps that provide similar “cloud file manager” functionality, Primadesk is web-based, and so works cross-platform and on mobile devices.

As well as document management, Primadesk can back up documents using Amazon’s S3 cloud storage, manage photos stored on Picasa, Flickr, Facebook and other services, and can also offer a unified inbox that can monitor emails from several different accounts.

Primadesk is currently in beta and is free. After launch, the product will likely move to a freemium model, possibly charging for the backup features. The company also plans to make money by charging OEM license fees for the use of its technology.

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Digital Filing Service OfficeDrop Now on Android

Aliza Sherman — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:00:04 +0000

OfficeDrop, an application for scanning, accessing and sharing paper and digital files via the cloud has been rolling out onto a variety of platforms. The company has announced that the OfficeDrop Paper-to-Go app for Android is now available, in addition to existing applications for Mac Windows and iPad.

The free Android app can be downloaded through the Android Market, and will soon also be offered through the Amazon App Store. It provides more functionally than the current iPad app as it allows you to take a photo with your phone’s camera in lieu of using a scanner, giving you more flexibility while you’re on the go. The text contained on the documents you photograph becomes searchable, in the same way that text in documents scanned in through the OfficeDrop desktop app do.

Using OfficeDrop, you can connect a scanner directly to many cloud storage apps, including Evernote, Dropbox, Google Docs and OfficeDrop’s own digital filing cabinet, which allows users to organize, search, share and access documents from anywhere. If you’re concerned about security, the Android app and the other OfficeDrop apps and services use a fully encrypted system to protect your files and data.

OfficeDrop also offers mail-in scanning services, similar to Shoeboxed, where you can mail documents to the company and have them scanned and added to your account. Its online Digital Filing System starts at $9.95 per month for 10 GB storage ($44.95 per month for teams). Mail-in scanning services start at $19.95 per month for home office use and up to 50 scanned pages per month, going up to $99.95 per month for the Paperless Team account.

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First Look: Google Docs App for Android

Charles Hamilton — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:32:16 +0000

My company has been using Google Apps for a few years now; it provides a simple way to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets, and it’s easy to share documents with clients. Google has now released a Google Docs app for Android to complement the web app. I’ve installed it on my HTC Evo 4G, and it looks like it will be a useful tool, offering the ability to create, edit and collaborate on documents while on the go.

The app installs quickly, and it’s reasonably sized at around 2.5 MB. Unfortunately, it can’t be moved to an SD card.

When I first launched the app, it didn’t ask me to log in to my Google Apps account, since my phone already syncs with my account. It took a few minutes for the documents in my account to appear in the app’s home screen. You can scroll down to see previous documents, or click the search icon.

Once in a document, you can edit it by clicking on the “Edit” button, which appears to take you to the mobile web version of Google Apps, but it’s so tightly integrated with the app that it’s hard to tell. You can also upload documents from your phone, print documents through Google Cloud Print, and access a web-based help function.

Editing word processing documents is pretty easy; just click anywhere in a document and the current paragraph will be outlined in blue and the keyboard will pop up. Editing spreadsheets is a bit trickier, but still reasonably easy to navigate. I’m not sure I would care to write an entire document in this editor, but it’s fine for minor edits.

The Google Docs app also lets users create documents from photos taken with the phone’s camera, and even tries to convert them into text using optical character recognition (OCR). Just click on the new document icon and select “document from photo.” Take a picture with the camera, give your new document a name (or let the app assign one), then wait a few seconds for the new document to appear in the document list, or go off and do something else. The app notifies you when the conversion is finished.

Unfortunately, the results were less than stellar. Here’s a sample of a document created from an 8″ x 6″ card that I happened to have, about a solar charger I recently wrote about. As you can see, Google Docs only managed to recognize a couple of lines. Results weren’t any better with several other printed documents and business cards that I tried. It’s hard to say whether Google’s OCR system is limited (although Simon has previously reported reasonably good results from using Google Docs OCR), or whether the photos my camera takes just aren’t good enough, but at least the Google Docs app also includes the original image in the document, so you can edit it manually as needed.

There’s also a widget with direct links to open the app, go directly to starred documents, take a photo to upload, and create a new document.

I’m impressed with the app so far, with the exception of its OCR capabilities.

The free Google Docs app is currently available in English and works on Android 2.1+ phones. It’s available by scanning the QR code, or by visiting the Android Market.

Have you tried the Google Docs app? What do you think?

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VMware Buys SlideRocket in a Race to Provide Collaboration

Stacey Higginbotham — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:39:03 +0000

VMware is showing off its CEO’s Microsoft roots by purchasing SlideRocket, an online presentation provider for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition fits in with VMware’s acquisition of the Zimbra messaging platform in January 2010 and pits VMwareagainst Microsoft, Cisco, Google and other folks in the collaboration space. Javier Soltero CTO, applications at VMware, says this deal is part of a big move by VMware into the application world.

“We are looking at the way cloud computing changes the way people work,” Soltero said in an interview. “With vSphere, we changed life for sysadmins and the way they looked at physical hardware. Cloud Foundry changed the way developers work, and now we want to change the way the end-user experiences his computing. Our strategy is expanding and taking shape with presentations being a core currency in business today.”

SlideRocket, a four-year-old startup that has raised $7 million in funding, offers its software to about 300,000 active users at the moment. It offers both a free version and a paid enterprise version, and Mitch Grasso, founder and CTO of SlideRocket, says sales of the paid version were growing 35 percent month-over-month. With the marketing muscle VMware can now put behind it, he expects conversion rates to increase. Grasso said for now, normal users won’t see any big changes, and he hopes to continue pushing features on the product to users now that it has more resources behind it, with mobile becoming a key area. The plan is to ensure people can view and create rich presentations on tablets and handsets.

As for VMware’s next buys, Soltero was cagey about what he perceived to be the holes in VMware’s application strategy. My hunch is an enterprise social networking product, which is becoming more and more important to enterprise customers, and perhaps an Excel-style spreadsheet or data platform might make sense. SlideRocket was backed by Azure Capital Partners and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and has 25 employees.

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Keep Tabs on Your Docs Account With Google Docs Notifier

Simon Mackie — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:05:02 +0000

If you don’t like having to switch to the Google Docs website to monitor your account to see whether any new documents have been shared with you, check out Google Docs Notifier, a simple free Widows utility that sits in the taskbar, displaying a count of unviewed Docs. Clicking the icon pops up a window displaying those unviewed Docs, which you can use to click through to the documents themselves in your default browser.

Although it would be nice to be able to log into more than one Google Docs account and I’d like to see a bit more visual polish (icons to help distinguish the different file types, for example), it does provide a very simple and easy way to keep tabs on your Google Docs account.

Google Docs Notifier works with Windows XP, Vista and 7. It’s an open source project that can be downloaded from Google Code.

(Via Lifehacker)

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Joukuu Manages Files Across Google Docs, Dropbox and Box.net

Simon Mackie — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:00:41 +0000

If you’re like me, you probably have files spread across a number of different cloud services, so you might be interested to hear about Joukuu, a Windows desktop app that manage files from Box.net, Dropbox and Google Docs.

Once set up to sync with your various cloud file accounts, Joukuu allows you to browse though your files, open documents by double-clicking, and move files between folders and accounts by dragging and dropping them. You can also delete files and create new folders. It works OK, but I have to say that are some shortcomings that limit its usefulness as an “all-in-one” cloud file manager. Firstly, there’s no built-in search feature, which will likely limit its usefulness if you have a large number of files to deal with. Secondly, although you can drag files onto the Joukuu window to send them to the cloud, you can’t drag files from the Joukuu window into other apps (to drop an image file into a document, for example). Finally, you cannot rename or share files. Only the Lite version of Joukuu is currently available, and it’s still in beta, so hopefully those features will be added in either a later or premium version. The developer also hints that later versions may support more cloud services and also become available for the Mac, too.

Joukuu Lite can be downloaded by signing up at the website. It requires the .NET Framework 3.5 or later.

(via Lifehacker)

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Google Docs Viewer Now Supports 12 More File Formats

Simon Mackie — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:21:34 +0000

Google Docs Viewer, the handy online document viewer that enables you to view Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and PDF files online without having to download them to your machine, now supports 12 new popular file formats. The list of supported file types now includes:

Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
Apple Pages (.PAGES)
Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
TrueType (.TTF)
XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

You can now view these file types just by clicking the “View” link from within Gmail, so next time someone emails you a file with one of these formats, you won’t have to download the file and hunt around for a suitable application to open or convert it.

You can also use Google Docs Viewer through Google Docs; uploading and sharing these files types through Google Docs means that anyone can view them through their browser.

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Google Docs Makeover Shoots for Better Cloud Organization

Ryan Kim — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:26:10 +0000

Google has updated the interface on Google Docs to help users navigate and sort through the increasing number of files they’re storing and editing in the cloud. The update includes new filters for document types, preview tools, priority sorting and new features for grabbing and sharing documents.

Users will be able to start with a new home section, where they can access frequently used documents. There’s also a new collections features which replaces labels and folders and allows users to organize documents for easy sharing and editing. Google has included a new preview panel for viewing videos and seeing thumbnails of documents. Pictures can be opened in a full screen viewer. Priority sorting builds off Gmail’s priority in-box and pulls the most important documents to the top.

There are additional filters to view document types. Now users can filter for videos and images and can apply filters for public and private documents. Google has also sped up the back end for faster performance, streamlined the interface overall and included new keyboard short cuts. The changes show that Google is able to iterate well and make things cleaner and more usable, if not the first time, eventually over successive updates. Improvements to Docs are important if Google wants to become a viable alternative to Microsoft’s productivity tools.

Google has recently enabled document editing on mobile devices. The company also released Google Cloud Connect, allowing users to begin a document in Microsoft Word, Excel or Powerpoint and then with a click of the button, share the document on the web via Google Docs. The latest update, which will roll out over the next couple of days, is not ground-breaking but it continues to help position Google Docs to better compete against Microsoft Office.

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Edit Google Documents Locally with GDocsOpen

Charles Hamilton — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 20:00:15 +0000

GDocsOpen is a software program for Windows that makes it easy to edit and sync local documents directly to Google Documents. I found its small size and simple installation appealing, but it can’t be used without an active internet connection, which limits its usefulness.

The software comes in a surprisingly-small 744 kb zip file. The installation program politely asks your okay for it to make changes to the registry, and requests your Google Docs username and password (which it says will be encrypted on your local hard drive). Once installed, you are presented with a two-pane screen showing local and remote files. When a file is selected, it opens Google Docs’ web interface.

The program generated a couple of errors while installing on an old XP machine, and I also got a “Google Docs is not supported in your browser” notice, although everything seemed to work all right. You should probably try the seven-day trial version on your systems before purchase; the software costs a very reasonable $9.99.

The software can be set to be the default edtor for Microsoft Office, StarOffice and OpenOffice documents, including .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .rtf, .ppt, .pps, .odt, and .ods. GDocsOpen requires Windows XP, 2003, Vista or 7, with the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

Using Google Docs to edit local documents isn’t unique to GDocsOpen — it’s one of the features of Egnyte, for example — but GDocsOpen may be an attractive option for those who like a local editor, but also want to sync documents with the cloud.

How do you edit and sync documents?

5050biz: All-In-One Business Tools

Charles Hamilton — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:00:01 +0000

At first glance, 5050biz.com looks a lot like LinkedIn. So I asked the folks at 5050biz the obvious question: if I’m already on LinkedIn, as a lot of web workers are, what does 5050biz have to offer me?

5050biz calls itself a “virtual office,” and includes the following components.

A social network, with features similar to LinkedIn and other networks.
1 GB of redundant, multi-hosted cloud storage for documents, with systems for sharing files. There are no online editing options, though, as Google Docs and Zoho Docs have.
Online text chat with members you have connected to, rather like Facebook Chat. This is web-only, not Jabber-based, so it can only be accessed at the 5050biz.com web site, not through any third-party chat client.
User-created networks, similar to LinkedIn Groups.
A system for managing shared and personal contacts. It only has a few editable fields, though, so its usefulness is limited.
A GoToMeeting-style screen-sharing and conference room system.
Business consulting services from 5050biz, like a calendar of workshops and a ‘Pro Team’ page, where professionals selected by 5050biz are available for consultation.

5050biz contends that its site can be used as an intranet, project management and/or CRM system. According to the folks I talked to at the site, it was designed for businesspeople who are perhaps less computer-savvy than most web workers. They think that such people will be willing to spend money for the convenience of an integrated experience.

This would be a stronger argument if the site was better organized. 5050biz suffers from an inconsistent interface between its various sections, and some parts of the site didn’t display correctly in certain browsers. Granted, the navigation in sites like LinkedIn could use some work, too, but its free version is much more feature-rich, and it has the major advantage of a huge user base.

I didn’t find any of the 5050biz site’s tools that compelling. Like a lot of “all-in-one” services, it tries to do many things, and ends up doing none of them very well. We’ve covered many of the types of tools 5050biz provides, a lot of them at little or no charge. Most web workers are already using tools in these categories, so most of us can easily assemble a suite of tools we like. 5050biz.com charges individuals $24.95 per month or $249 per year. Business groups of 5-100 people can join for $49.95 per month or $499 per year. There is a free version of the service, but its features are very limited. There is a 30-day free trial to anyone who wishes to try the service.

To be honest, I don’t know many web workers who would benefit from 5050biz. It’s possible that it might be of interest to some of our less technically-sophisticated clients. Yes, it’s nice to have several tools in one place, but for us, I don’t think that the minimal convenience is worth the cost.

What do you think of 5050biz?

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Black Tonic: Present Your Slides Live Online

Imran Ali — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:00:00 +0000

Wolverine, Portland-based design consultancy firm, today launched Black Tonic, a web-based app that helps presenters deliver a presentation to their viewers — live and in real time.

There’s no shortage of web-based applications for authoring and publishing presentations (Google Docs, Slideshare) or screen-sharing (Yuuguu) in real time, but Wolverine has chosen to orient its Black Tonic app around a handful of basic principles that differentiate it from existing services:

Instant “experience sharing,” synchronizing browsers for all those watching a presentation.
Placing control in the hands of the presenter alone.
Stripping back the interface to give prominence to the slides’ content, rather than the app itself.

After signing up, presenters’ accounts are provisioned with a custom subdomain, and they can begin to upload their slides as a series of GIF, JPEG or PNG images. Once uploaded, presenters can invite viewers to their presentation simply by issuing them with the unique URL automatically generated by the application; for example, http://webworkerdaily.blacktonic.com/izu2ar9.

The synchronized presentation sessions — powered by the company’s innovative XS technology — work great and require minimal explanation to viewers; they just click and watch. However, despite my fondness for simplicity in application and service design, the stripped-back, minimalist features of Black Tonic’s suggest a great, albeit unfinished service.

Critically, Black Tonic is missing a mechanism to directly import Keynote or Powerpoint slides, or even batch upload slide images; this raises the barrier to entry for new users. Though the XS-powered synchronization works very well, presentations need an additional medium to provide context — such as a conference call or real-time chat. Providing built-in features to set up, for example, a Skype conference call, though reducing simplicity, would provide value to users and even a route to future revenues.

Less crucially, it’s unclear if the generated URLs are permalinks. If so, should a downloadable collection of slides be available alongside privacy controls? And why not also shorten those URLs by default for further flexibility — http://bt.nc/zu2ar9, for example.

Black Tonic shows great promise and it’s worth experimenting with. I suspect that the creators — David Price and Phillipe Blanc — will be adding features rapidly as they learn how users are responding, so do register and give your feedback!

Tried Back Tonic? Let us know what you think of it below.

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