Collaborative Work Environment Assignment

A collaborative work environment can consist of several different features, tools and abilities including document managers, web folders, calendars, schedulers, task managers, to do list, web/audio conferencing, messaging (email and instant), web database, discussion forums, team rooms, personal information management, contact directories, opinion polls, announcements, project management/visibility, customer relationship management, supplier management and multi-channel publishing of a single content item via web site, email, fax, print, handheld wireless devices. If I were to design a collaborative work environment for myself in my current position at Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) it would include messaging (email and instant), calendar, scheduler, task manager, project manager, contact directories (internal and external), discussion forums, opinion polls, announcements, document manager and multi-channel publishing of a single content item. Currently KKI uses Novell GroupWise, a business collaboration tool, that has a calendar, scheduler, task manager, contact directories (internal only), email and instant messaging (while on-site only). Xerox copier/fax/scanners are located in each building at each site which allows everyone the ability to scan documents to PDF format and then email the document to yourself or others within KKI. A collaborative work environment is useful for instructional technologists to communicate with the team working on a training project including SMEs and contractors. I especially like the idea of having a single point of access to frequently-used resources like files created with Word, Excel, Access or PowerPoint, graphics, written narrative/scripts, sound files, etc. Since a collaborative work environment really can be anything that helps you communicate, I would say that you could create a something for under $100. A blog would be a cheap and easy way to begin. Business blogs have become a place to share knowledge and expertise with customers or employees. This sharing can be accomplished by postings to the blog or by providing links to information. There are several levels between this simple model and the ultimate model but it all depends on what you need. The intranets.com model is a reasonable solution as well with pricing as low as $60 per month for five users and provides powerful collaborative tools. Bonus: What does groove.net and Lotus Notes have in common? Both provide a collaborative work environment accessible from anyplace yet provides a single point of access for resources like email, calendar, instant messaging, scheduling, and other collaborative tools as well as providing advance replication technology which allows both products to be accessed anytime.