Collaborate!

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a look at the world that has grown up around collaboration.

I think, like us all, I know a program here and there, and use what occurs to me to involve others more, usually by incorporating a tool which simplifies a process or finding a user-friendly framework for sharing content. There’s tons out there.

There’s an excellent diagrammed map at Mindmeister, for instance, that charts the different activities called forth in collaborating these days — everything from document-sharing to white boarding to private social networking platforms to workspace tools for collaborative writing and reviewing.

But after you glimpse into this universe of how people are currently conceiving collaboration, it’s good to identify what would compel you to make such a shift.  At the most basic level, think how you, one single artist to another or you, one group of creative folks to another, might benefit from greater exchange.  I’ll share with you a few scenarios.

Scenario #1: Suppose you are working on developing the website to help promote your work.  Ordinarily, you might scan a few websites of people in your network or those whom you admire, bookmark particular pages for later viewing, make mental notes of those approaches, text, and visual components which are most likely to be successful for you, and perhaps, once you developed your own site, pass it on to a few friends for review.

Now, imagine a more collaborative approach using your network.  Twiddla embraces a good example of this (they call it co-browsing).  A team of people can get together on a Twiddla page and browse your site while participating in discussions, adding annotations, sharing files and chatting along - all in real time.  It’s like adding a whiteboard layer over any uploaded image or website. Through the use of the tool, you might engage via audio, real-time chat, website mark up and the ability to brainstorm new elements from scratch. You can save what you come up with, and get the feedback all in one pass. A true time saver.  And guess what? It’s free. (Along the same lines, there is Envolve, but they are still in beta, stay tuned!).

Scenario #2: You’ve come up with a number of new product ideas and frankly, you’re not sure which of the ideas has the most legs. You need people to share their insight on what you should go with.  In addition, you want to hear from potential customers some detail regarding their perceptions and have them feel included in your development process. After all, it’s all about knowing your clients better, isn’t it?

Typically, you’d approach things this way: You might ask for some direction from those you already know well, posing your questions unsystematically, maybe via some impromptu, informal feedback mechanism.

So again imagine that same scenario, using UserVoice. You discuss an idea on your blog or website, invite people to vote on each idea and like a forum, you get detailed comments but with the addition of a final count of how many people responded, and many more actually participating — even those you don’t know very well. You’ll know which ideas really were embraced and why, and the whole thread of the conversation will be there to view by everyone who cares to read it. Since Uservoice can live wherever your customers gather, after the initial signup, they can just offer reviews right there. Finally, you’ll get a quick idea of who all participated and realize the best ideas quickly, since they will quite literally rise to the top of the list.

Scenario #3: You want to organize an event to showcase your work.  You’ve designed a half-day set of client activities. Others will be presenting and you feel it might be nice to coordinate/collaborate on some parts of the day’s events as well.

It’s natural to start with what you’re used to doing, chatting on the phone with your co-creators, and identifying common areas of support.  However, it often turns out one or both of you had a different sense of things and didn’t quite communicate as intended.  Oh, well.

But imagine that this time, you would go about setting up your mutual participation differently. Imagine having the flow of events mapped out.  Mindmaps are now tools for collaboration, meaning you can work on the same map at the same time online.  You can mark the steps, identify who does what, and have a reminder map for later. Check out Comapping.com and  Mind42 and see what I mean. Does it get you further?  Clarity, a clean way to delegate tasks, and a permanent record, for instance?  If it does, it’s a collaboration idea worth embracing.

So, try them out.  All of them, as they fit you.  You’ll be including others, and maybe even having a better time.