But when you don’t share a physical space with your collaborators, is there an online equivalent?  How can those titbits of information be shared with the whole team and displayed visually so that they’re not forgotten?

Stixy is a flexible, intuitive and free tool that allows individuals to create online boards and add to-dos, documents, photos and notes, which can then be shared with team members.  The board’s design can be customised and the ‘widgets’ moved around and organised easily.  A great way to get started.

A tool with more sophisticated functionality (but needing a bit more of an induction) is Evernote.  Evernote allows users to store anything – images, websites, text notes, sketches  – in an online space or  ‘notebook’, to come back to later.  Although primarily designed to help individuals to remember stuff, they have added functionality for notebooks to be shared with others (although a Premium account is needed for them to edit and add to the notebook, otherwise they can only view).  Once downloading the various applications and plug-ins (such as the web clipping tool), your Evernote account can be accessed from your computer or the internet.  Install it on your mobile phone and you’ll also be able to store bits of information on the fly – for example,  take a snapshot of something that inspires you and add it to your shared notebook for your team members to see almost instantly.

Google Docs has added ‘Drawing’ as one of the file types that can be created (drawings can also be inserted into documents, spreadsheets and presentations). It’s very easy to start sketching away, and existing images can also be uploaded. Invite people to view and edit the file in the usual way, and download them as .png, .jpg, .svg or .pdf files.

For something more interactive and advanced, try Dabbleboard or Scribblar. Both offer real-time collaboration with supported chat functions.

In Scribblar, create a ‘room’ which you can invite people to by sending them a link. On sign-up you’re asked for your Skype username in case you want to use audio chat whilst working in the ‘room’ at the same time as other team members. Scribblar is completely free to create as many rooms as you like unless you want to embed them in your website or blog with your own branding.

Dabbleboard prides itself on an easy-to-use interface, which can automatically detect a shape you’re trying to draw when you provide a rough outline. Alternatively you can use freehand drawing or upload and annotate existing images. Again, invite your collaborators to the drawing area by sending them a link. Dabbleboard also offers voice and video chat for a project team (via Tokbox, a tool that supports free video chat for up to 20 people). There are additional services for paid-for accounts.

Creative Boom London kindly wrote a fantastic review of the workshop which covers all of these points (and more) in detail.

Bracket’s session at Media Camp London 4 during Social Media Week generated lots of discussion about the best methods and tools for helping groups of creatives to get things done.  It looked at how social media could be used to support collaborative working between artists and designers etc that are used to working independently, usually have autonomy over their work, are characteristically busy, and highly skilled in generating ideas. The aim of the session was to develop solutions for how to channel that creativity into tangible outcomes and how social media can be used to support the process along the way.

The word ‘collaboration’ is often used freely without consideration for how complex it can actually be. Not only does it require a set of skills to do it effectively, but also a different mindset and culture to adapt to a new way of working.  An ‘online project hub’ can be used to provide a central point to bring everyone together, but technology should actually come last after two other factors – people and process.

People

The set of skills and awareness that is needed by the individual before starting the project. Effective collaboration requires tolerance of other working styles,  a willingness to share and a commitment to open and frequent communication with other team members.

Process

The part that should happen with the team in place, to plan how the collaborative project might work. Individuals need to identify what they are bringing and hope to get out, the team needs to look at the overall aims of the project and roles should be allocated according to key skills and personalities to ensure a good spread of what the project requires (Belbin is a good tool for profiling this). Time must also be allocated to planning, scheduling and organisation, which many online tools can help with.

Technology

Time or cost spent developing an online tool doesn’t guarantee that people will use it. It is often difficult to get people away from using e-mail to communicate in projects, because on a basic level, it works!  But social media can add much value by keeping ideas in one place (particularly when team members tend to go off in different creative directions), making this easily searchable,  providing a record of what has already been discussed/agreed and therefore reducing duplication of work and effort.

So the perfect online tool, for groups of creatives short on time is something that requires little or no training, is intuitive and is flexible to the initial needs of the type of project and as it develops. And a big challenge throughout the project is maintaining focus without killing creativity.

An excellent alternative for online storage/backup is Dropbox, providing up to 2GB of space for free, with charges for more.  Install the application to your desktop computer or laptop, and files will automatically be saved and updated across all of your devices (and online) when you edit or change them.   There’s also a Dropbox iPhone app which works in the same way, enabling you to access files on the move.  The feature Bracket finds most useful is the ‘share a folder’ function with other Dropbox users.  The folder will appear across all of their devices too, and any changes they make to files are updated for everyone who also has access, making project collaboration effortless.

• Have an agenda, with timings, which should be forwarded to all participants beforehand, and outlined again at the beginning of the meeting
• Allocate someone in charge of chairing to keep the meeting focussed and running to time
• Adhere to the same protocols that you would in offline meetings – listening to whoever is speaking, not interrupting
• Allocate someone responsible for taking minutes to record what was discussed, agreed and decided, and writing these up to circulate to rest of group

The tools. (some we’ve mentioned before):

Skype: hosts conference calls for up to 9 participants, with video, file sharing and instant messaging (useful for sharing web links or notes whilst talking).  The latest version also enables screen sharing to show your colleagues exactly what you’re looking at.

Twiddla -  a more creative environment to share images and sketches with all team members online at the same time.  Has a supporting chat (text and audio) function for discussions (unfortunately no longer free, except for a 30-day trial)

Etherpad – a dynamic method of online collaborative writing which allows you to see your teams edits in real-time.   Useful if the focus of the meeting is to get a document finalised.   This application is free if the files are kept public, but there is a cost to make them private.

Google Wave – the new conversational tool from Google (still currently in invite mode) which allows for real-time editing like Etherpad, but also acts like a wiki (allowing for attachments and links), e-mail (you can start new ‘waves’ with your contacts) and instant messaging.

(So there’s no excuse if we’re hit by another bout of snow!)

Before you start

Two things to bear in mind when using online networks:

1. Don’t just see social media as a way of broadcasting your message.  Although online networks provide a quick and easy way of getting your news out, remember another use is to enable conversations (hence the ‘social’ part of its label!).  Social media tools allow you to build relationships and connect with people you might not have had the opportunity to before – e.g. those outside of your usual network, in other industries or countries.
2. Don’t just view social networking as a way of increasing direct sales*.  In the same way you might go to a private view, swap a few business cards and perhaps find a way of working with your new contacts a few months later, it also takes time to build relationships online.  Simply see it as an web-based version of face-to-face networking.

* Social media can be used to engage your direct customers/clients, but here we’re talking about how you can use online tools to connect with other creatives and access new business opportunities.

Building your online profile

Think about what potential collaborators might find interesting about you and your work.  At a most basic level it’s an extension of your brand – the creative work that you produce, your specialist talents and previous experience.  But on a deeper level it’s also about establishing trust, and helping others to identify that they want to work with you.  It might even be that who you’re already connected to helps them to decide this (LinkedIn is great for this, and tools like The Collabregator map existing connections in London).

Highlighting your skills

Being open to collaboration also means being open to what you might actually bring to a project.   Although you might be a product designer, it doesn’t mean the only thing that you can contribute is product design.  There will be other skills that might be of use – e.g. your approach to creative briefs, your knowledge of a particular material, or your inside knowledge about an area of the industry. Think broadly about what makes you unique, identify it, then put it out there!  As well as the usual networks mentioned above that enable you to create online profiles, there are also sites specifically set-up for creative individuals to showcase their skills for potential projects.  One example is Skillbasket which aims to be an online marketplace to buy, sell or trade creative skills and services.

Finally…
Choose to get involved with collaborations that are going to contribute to your brand and practice – not detract from it.  Keep your online profile up-to-date by adding new collaborations and connections.     Don’t forget to keep an eye on what your online profile says – consider all the places potential collaborators might have access to information on you – do you Google yourself or your business regularly to find out?!

A large part of effective collaboration is developing and maintaining an online identity to attract potential collaborators – and you can also use the principles above to find people that you might want to work with.

Cue Shout’em, a new service that allows you to create your own ‘micro-blogging network’ (micro-blogging is the technical term for platforms like Twitter, which allow you to send instant and short status updates, e.g. 140 characters max, to people following you).

With Shout’em you can customize your design, invite people to your network and make it accessible only to selected contacts.  Once in use, you can choose to post text, links, photos or locations, and even access it from your mobile phone.

Shout’em could be great way of communicating within a project team to get a quick answer to a question, share an idea that pops into your head or for instant updates to an event that someone is attending.

A group of writers have set themselves up with the task to write and publish a book in just 24 hours using online tools to work together.  The group has been using Google Docs to write and edit the document, as well as using Skype and face-to-face conversation to communicate, and have been updating us on their progress through their twitter profile.

The 24-hour book project

The group consists of one lead writer and ten other participants, and they also opened up part of the book on Google Docs to invite contributions from the wider public.  As well as this, they’ve been gathering photos, illustrations and other snippets of media for use in the book or inspiration over on their Ning platform (Ning enables you to create your own social networks).

The final book will be available online and in hard-copy (produced by web-based print-on-demand services) and sold at £4.99 a piece, with profits going towards future collaborations.

Briefly looking at the elements that contributed to getting this project going.  The team:

1. agreed on the focus of the story (“based around a group of city centre allotments and the story will explore ideas of shared and private space and the real and imaginary barriers between a range of different city characters”)
2. identified the desired outcome (an online and printed novel)
3. gave themselves a clear deadline within which to complete the project – they have a launch party on Monday 5^th October.
4. clearly outlined the tasks that need to be completed – writing, editing, proofreading, images, publishing etc – and who will do them – lead writer, participants, professional volunteers and the public.

(Check out Bracket’s toolkit for collaborative projects to see how it matches up)

And the intellectual property?  The group have been careful to inform the public contributors that they must own any material they submit, and will retain ownership but give permission for it to be used within the project.  The book itself will be distributed under a Creative Commons license.

A great example of what online creative collaboration can achieve!

Docs

Online text documents, spreadsheets and presentations – allows multiple team members to edit a file, and includes a chat function for real-time communication if they are online together.  Files are displayed in the order that they were last edited, not alphabetically, which can get confusing.  So if there are a lot of files within a project, it’s a good idea to sort them into folders, which can also be shared across project teams.

Calendar

An online calendar to manage events and tasks – can create multiple, colour-coded calendars which can be individually shared with others to add events to and edit.  Tasks can be added to a calendar, but not assigned to people and although there is a reminder function for events, there isn’t for tasks – which would be useful.  Google Docs is good when integrated with Google Sites (see below)

Groups

An online space for sharing information and creating discussions – groups can be made private and members can opt to have daily reminders of any activity on the space.  Team members can create new pages (which work like a wiki) and upload files. Discussions can either be started from the Google Groups space, or via e-mail through the address that is assigned to the group.

Sites
Create a dedicated website for a project and add features – can be public or private.   New pages can be normal text (like a wiki), lists (e.g. for tasks, although there is no reminder function), file cabinet (to upload documents), or announcements (which works like a blog).  ‘Gadgets’ can be integrated within pages, which include a Google calendar, Google documents, Picasa (Google’s image sharing tool), Google maps or video.  They can’t be edited directly from the site, but update automatically when edited elsewhere.  A dashboard page can be created to insert multiple gadgets – useful for showing all recent activity on the site.  Members can opt to receive an e-mail when either the whole site or a page changes (which could get annoying!).

Wave (coming soon)
Not content with all of the above, Google will soon be publicly launching their new communication and collaboration tool ‘Wave’, which is certainly causing a few waves on the web!  Although Bracket can’t claim to know exactly how it works (the preview is currently available only to web developers) we know it will combine various types of communication and allow for real-time interaction (collaborators will be able to see changes character-by-character).  We’re looking forward to experimenting when it comes!