Hi Lorenz,
For joint paper writing I recommend Goole docs above everything else. The main reason for this, is that it is free, incredibly easy to set up and use, and works across platforms. Everybody can write in the same document simultaneously. And most importantly, you always only have one document. No more I-wrote-in-this-document-and-you-wrote-in-another-document-and-now-we-must-merge-the-two,-including-comments-we-made-to-the-other-person’s-texts-which-meanwhile-she-altered-in-another-document.
If what you are after is more on the communication and sharing side, I recommend Google+ communities<http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/communities/>. I have chosen it for an online learning space for a course that I will be running in June. I have decided to use it because it’s easy, its free, it’s in everyone’s pocket (if you have a smartphone). And apart from posting messages, it allows for all users to both receive and share, images, movies, links, documents (if you link to online repositories), etc. It has a logic similar to Facebook (a stream) but you can set up categories for filtering.
My criteria has been that it must offer a good overview of the information while at the same time being easy to post stuff to. It should also be easy to manage with many users, which is the shortcoming of most blog systems (like for instance wordpress, which I considered for a while). The trade-off is that it has less graphic formatting options (hardly any, in fact). And needless to say, Google+ communities can be private.
I don’t know yet whether it will work for my teaching purposes as I haven’t started using it to this end yet. But I use it together with international colleagues in a research network and for that it’s perfect.
If you need something like a shared online document repository which is easy to overlook and navigate, I have no clear recommendations as neither Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar services are any more logical and structured than the persons posting data to them. And they are definitely not self-explanatory.
But I will be all ears, if someone else can recommend a good system…
Best,
Nic
NOTE: when I use the term “free" above, I am aware of course, that the price is that Google will know all sorts of stuff about me and the other users.
NICOLAI STEINØ
Associate Professor, PhD, GDBA
AALBORG UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN and MEDIA TECHNOLOGY
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Den 04/05/2014 kl. 15.44 skrev Lorenz Herfurth <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>:
Dear all,
I am looking for a platform/software to facilitate academic collaboration for various (or any of the following) purposes, e.g. writing papers, writing bids, sharing of research materials, conducting collaborative research. So far have come across "cuppla" and know that QDA software supports team work, but would like to know whether anyone is using an online platform/software and might recommend one. Solutions that you found easy to use and work across operating systems would be of specific interest.
Looking forward to receive any tips and recommendations.
Kind regards
Lorenz
Postgraduate Researcher (PhD Student) in Design
Imagination Lancaster
Lancaster University
UK
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