Collaboration Tools - Thing 16

I can't shout enough about how good Doodle is! It just makes things so easy when it comes to trying to organise meetings or getting a large number of people in the same room at the same time. I started using it in work about a year or so ago and am always surprised now when someone uses the 'old fashioned method' of dates in an email. I don't usually add email addresses into Doodle but let it send me the link and administrator email; then I can email it out to people in my address book. I like the way it notifies you when people have responded to the poll.  I even use it now to organise get-togethers with friends spread across the whole of Ireland (must be the librarian in me!).

I haven't really used Google Docs. In work we use the sharepoint application to save documents, policies etc but only really when they are signed off.  As with most organisations, there is alot of document and email ping-pong before a document, set of instructions or policy is finalised.  There may well be a function within sharepoint for this sort of collaboration but usually it involves a word document with the notes function or track changes. The latter can be a pain to follow at times so it's good to see that Google Docs has suggested editing and comments rather than only hard and fast editing. Do you need to have google account to be able to access Google Docs?  If so, that's a downside but perhaps not. I'm not sure that it would still exist if it had to be google account holders only.

As we already use Doodle in work, it fits very nicely and I don't usually have a problem with anyone accessing the link.  Google Docs might be worth a try if it doesn't rely on the google account side of things. At the moment we seem to be using another tool called Coggle. I registered to use it with my gmail account but it is used in work to look at complex information e.g. generating mind maps for use with the social persona on our library social media accounts. I haven't had the opportunity to contribute to the mind maps but it looks very straight forward to set up and amend/add material.  I then get an update email to say that something has changed so I can only imagine that everyone within the group who has registered for it, gets a similar update.

I'm sure that there are so many tools out there for collaborating together. It's about finding them and using the best one for the job.