Collaboration Hub

INTRODUCTION

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Collaboration Hub is like a collection of links to your gigantic online toolbox.

After you explore these options you might think of people that you could begin to collaborate with immediately. And then after these options are in your memory you may be amazed at how useful these are for you and those you know in the coming months.

The business community has been working for many years to develop ways for people to more effectively communicate and collaborate online. Every year the options increase and the costs decrease. The advancing technology keeps making it increasingly user-friendly.

Just a few years ago only large corporations with big Information Technology department could offer these kinds of options to their employees and vendors. However recently the computer programming and Internet technologies have opened the way to a wide range of options. Some companies can afford to offer some valuable tools for free.

AUDIENCES

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Here you will find links to possible online services that groups of people can use to collaborate online. The possible groups include any particular group or combination of the following: pastors, elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, church staff, church members, missionaries, denomination leaders, intercessors, advisors, donors, seekers, professors, teachers, students, alumni, club members, neighbors, relatives, fans, professionals, civic leaders, nonprofit leaders, community volunteers, etc.

In most cases only one of the following services may be needed at first or perhaps a few will be used. But here is the menu of the many options to choose from so that the online collaboration can start in an appropriate way and expand as needed.

BOOKMARK

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This kind of research can get complicated. You will find key pages on these sites that you want to refer back to later or to share with others. So along the way any person can set up a free account at Furl www.Furl.net to store and share the bookmarks of the best web pages they find.

FREE AND FEE

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Many of the services are free for the entire service or for a limited use. Most have a fee but consider what benefits and values you could gain in exchange for that fee.

OPTIONS

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Yahoo Group is free and flexible
http://groups.yahoo.com/

Central Desktop has plenty of features
http://www.centraldesktop.com/

Base Camp has many possibilities
http://www.basecamphq.com/

Blogger offers free blogs, like this one
http://www.blogger.com

EZ Board is a provider of Internet forums where you can join others or create your own http://www.ezboard.com/

Venture CD offers web sites for a church or ministry http://www.venturecd.net

Two ways to send out email newsletters with the headlines on to a group and link back to a blog or website for the details
Constant Contact http://www.constantcontact.com
Gold Lasso http://www.goldlasso.com/

Trek Earth is a way to see and share photos from around the world http://www.trekearth.com

Free Conference Call offers just what it says
http://www.freeconference.com/

Skype http://skype.com/ is a way to talk over the Internet

Studio Odeo http://studio.odeo.com/create/home has podcasts and audio blogs

eTouch Same Page has everything
http://www.etouch.net

Wiki Matrix has many wikis and online collaboration options listed here with way to compare side by side
http://www.wikimatrix.org/

Sales Force http://www.salesforce.com/ is a huge player
They offer much more than sales aids with the addition of the Application Exchange http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/
Note that they have many versions http://www.salesforce.com/products/comparison.jsp
including a free personal edition http://www.salesforce.com/products/personal.jsp

Free Management Library has plenty of useful lessons online http://www.managementhelp.org/topics.htm

2006-06-21T11:25:00.000-05:00