Shakespeare’s quandary for a team.
There is one good investigation of collaboration tools, starting from ordinary IMs and ending up with 3D offices where you can really live:
Collaboration tools research Say "wow" to a new way of collaboration and scream while you can do it, because in a week you will regret it. It's really hard to force somebody to use "a brand new way of ...” That’s why new Web products become a “Swiss-knife”.
Almost all collaborative tools have chats, VoIPs, even Video conversation opportunities. Some of them have comments and "bloggy" things and all this exists just to make a client focus on the main target to get people together in order to work at something. So I've decided to create a list of my "I don't want to…" as a client of these tools:
1. don't really want to use integrated chats, I have Skype for this
2. don't want to draw something on my diagram blocks
3. don't want to share link of my draft with someone
4. don't want to change colors of each line, block and change the shadow below them.
5. don't really want to have files tab, comments tab, bla-bla tab all over the screen, so an application is load of crap even if you use a full screen mode.
6. don't want to make collaboration on principle "one person is making a demonstration, everybody is listening to"; it's not a collaborative man!
So, basically only "10%" of all features are used for cooperative work and the other "90%" goes for marketing "wow"s. Nevertheless, I am concerned about that "90%” which makes me feel it is inconvenient to use these features in business. I don't want to waste my time learning how to use a new modern wheel when I'm using the old one on 80%.
I am absolutely convinced that those 37 signals, the guys described well how it ought to work in "Getting Real" book, having divided your features list into 2 parts. Or, if you are a fan of the project, you could divide it into 3. According to my experience I just want to say: "Feel the reality, use your own tool for business." Only if you use it day-by-day 100% yourselves can the product be sold to other people. That's why all the team has been using Hand2B for the project‘s structure description and keeping working files there. We haven't even used the drawing tool; perhaps we will have to remove it?! :)
