In the last few editions of NewsFeed we’ve highlighted Google Wave, Google’s new platform which enables users to have real-time interaction when collaborating on documents (see Google Wave in Two Minutes and 7 Things You Should Know About Google Wave).
Whilst Google weren’t the first to publicise the potential of real-time collaboration they have grabbed most of the headlines and we expect a number of new sites will appear in 2010. In the meantime readers might be interested in three existing sites which allow real-time collaboration with text, mind-maps and diagrams highlighted below:
Word processing – Etherpad
If you are interested in going down this route a couple of posts you might find useful are a very detailed installing etherpad guide and a discussion thread on ldap user authentication.
Mind mapping – Mindmeister
Mindmeister is an online collaborative mind mapping tool. The interface is very easy to use. Like mainly other web services it uses a ‘freeium’ model so the downside is that students will only be able to have 3 mind maps on the go at one time (but these can be exported as image, PDF or RTF). Below is a great video by Thomas N. Burg which highlights mindmeister’s basic functionality (nodes which flash red have been created by a co-collaborator).
Diagrams – Cacoo
Cacoo looks like it would be a great tool for computing students with ready made icons for networks, office equipment and design wireframes (and UML if that is your thing), the site may also have wider appeal with more generic shapes. As well as enabling real-time collaboration Cacoo also has some very useful other features like snap-align and connecting shapes together. The video below has a nice overview:
[Text from this post was taken from the RSC Scotland North & East Higher Education blog MASHe]