Thursday, March 06, 2008

How to collaborate online for FREE

If you need a place on the web where to exchange some files, comment them, publish some basic webpages, etc. at no cost today there are a few valid options on the net. There have been different solutions for the past decade but now these reflect a higher reliability and ease of use.

Let's start with simple things. Your need is just to Share some files:
1. Microsoft provides upto 5 Gb on http://skydrive.live.com/welcome.aspx?provision=1
2. Adobe gives just 1 Gb: https://share.adobe.com/

There are many other players on the web (http://www.xdrive.com/, http://www.box.net/, http://www.omnidrive.com/) but these two seem both reliable & userfriendly.

If things are extending to a further more "collaborative context" there you will find:
1. MS with http://workspace.officelive.com/ (mostly for personal use) or http://smallbusiness.officelive.com/ (small companies, 5 persons). The origin for these two is a good SharePoint 2007 Microsoft customization !

2. Google apps: http://www.google.com/a/ that enables you to share and edit online docs, publish a basic website, have calendars, chat, etc. Originally comes out as a packaging of different google services as mail (famous 5+ Gb), google docs+spreadsheets+presentations, google sites, talk, etc.

These are simple hints that I would give to any friend might ask me about collaboration online.
I would also suggest to share only low-confidential data and use at least a basic personal security option (zip with password for a start). Avoid to share copyrighted material. Most of the FREE services detect sooner or later this kind of content and (depending on your local regulations) you might get in trouble.

No comments: