The Mobile Collaboration frontier can be a difficult one to navigate. These days there are so many options to choose from depending on your team’s specific set of needs. Some technologies attempt for an all-in-one approach, whereas others are more focused on singular tasks; some are associated with programs you already know and love, and some may be completely brand new to you.
Presented for you here are categorizations we collaboratively brainstormed to help you explore this wild frontier, along with examples of products in each. Note that these categories attempt to compartmentalize a very dynamic market with immense overlap. Exemplary of that point, Microsoft Office 365, Apple, and the Google Suite of products all make their presence felt throughout these lists with high-level integration of services.
Presented for you here are categorizations we collaboratively brainstormed to help you explore this wild frontier, along with examples of products in each. Note that these categories attempt to compartmentalize a very dynamic market with immense overlap. Exemplary of that point, Microsoft Office 365, Apple, and the Google Suite of products all make their presence felt throughout these lists with high-level integration of services.
Cornerstone Mobile Collaboration Tools:
GROUP CHATS/MESSENGERS/VIDEO CHATS
FILE SHARING
DOCUMENT CO AUTHORING
Supportive tech
The above categories that we dubbed as "cornerstones" deal with how we connect, share and create together; they are the three categories one might consider as the essentials when talking about collaborative technologies. However, a lot of other technologies that also support collaboration in various forms, whether as stand-alone mediums or as a tool to help in the general collaboration process.
CAMERA SCANNERS
Bridging the divide between old school and new, camera scanning apps allow you to convert photos into digital documents, meaning you can work on paper and share digitally within seconds.
· Camscanner
· Rocketbook
SCHEDULING APPS
While a lot of collaborating happens on a when-available basis, it’s often important to coordinate face to face meetings for those tasks that can’t get done another way. These days, digital calendars are shareable in terms of both viewing and editing, meaning its easier to know each other’s availability and arrange meeting times.
· Google Calendar
· Team Up
· Microsoft Outlook
· iCloud Calendar
· Zoho Calendar
· Trello
The original cloud-based storage and communication platform, we would be remiss not to mention that it’s still a vital part of many group collaborations with its file sharing and communication capabilities.
· Gmail
· Outlook
· iCloud mail
MULTIMEDIA COLLABORATION SPACES
Moving away from traditional document creation (think Word, Excel and PowerPoint), these technologies allow for creative use of space. Whether digital whiteboards, brainstorming organizers or other they promote and facilitate colorful, dynamic and artistic creation among co collaborators.
· MindMup
· Coggle
· Microsoft OneNote
· Twiddla
· Stormboard
· FB Groups
· Minecraft
· Explain Everything
· Evernote
· Confluence
CROWDSOURCING
These technologies allow you to draw information in from large groups of people, making them all co collaborators in a sense. It may be something as simple as an online post-it board or a sharable form for receiving feedback.
· Google Forms
· Microsoft Forms
· Padlet
· Wordclouds