Apps & Online Tools: Essentials for the mobile knowledge worker [updated again]
I have a new task in my day job... A self-appointed task, but one I'm excited about nonetheless. I'm going to collect together and evangelise a set of tools to help colleagues who don't specialise in (and - stretch your imagination a bit - aren't very excited about) IT. These will be applications and online services that would make their lives easier as mobile 'knowledge workers' who need to form teams quickly and collaborate with lots of different people easily...
There's no firm criteria, but broadly these services must be:
- Simple to use - minimal learning curve.
- Single task - not requiring wholesale adoption of that tool for the whole business / all your data.
- Free or very cheap.
- Easy to adopt (not requiring their clients or colleagues to change the way they work).
- Flexible (can be used on their work, home or client computers).
- Supportive or at least compatible with industry best practices.
Information / Information Management
Google Alerts - Customised e-mail alerts for news on any search subject you define delivered 'as they happen', daily or weekly. Ideal for tracking industry topics, clients in the news or commentary on your firm / project. Web-based sign-up, delivery by email, free, Google account required.
Evernote - Note-taking application which can also recognise text in images. Ideal as a universal notepad or for capturing images of hand-outs or whiteboards to be searched later. Web-based but also with clients for Mac, PC and loads of mobile devices - can also capture notes by email, free for features described but chargeable for very high capacity and additional PDF searching, each user requires login to their notepads but can share notepads to anyone without login.
Scanr - Image correction and recognition service for business cards and whiteboards. Ideal for turning mobile phone pictures of business cards or whiteboards into cleaner more usable PDFs. Website promotes applications for most popular mobile phone platforms but works well by email, free but low-cost subscription available for larger volumes, requires login for person submitting images.
Google Maps - On-line mapping application with street-level imagery and annotation tool. In addition to standard mapping and route-planning also offers street-level photography and map annotation. Ideal for identifying a building before travelling or for plotting maps of meeting. Web-based, free, standard mapping / routing and street view available without login, map annotation requires Google account for author.
Collaboration
[Updated] Etherpad (due to close) / TypeWith.Me (Etherpad's new home) - Immediate collaboration on simple documents. Ideal for joint drafting, keeping a real-time activity log or collaborative meeting minutes. Web-based, free, no login required, all changes tracked and version-controlled.
Campfire - Group instant messaging. Ideal for distributed team conversations such as team meetings or a 'back channel' for conference calls to pass messages to a chairperson or moderator. Web-based, free for small groups, chargeable for larger groups, organiser requires login but other parties don't.
Drop.io - Short-term file store for files up to 100mb in total size. Ideal as an alternative to mailing large documents around and has some simple collaboration features for leaving comments on the document store. Website-based, free to use but with additional premium features available to pay for, no login required.
[Amended] Doodle - Simple decision-making tool with features to 'select a date' or 'make a decision'. Ideal for running a simple poll between a team or select a meeting date from a range of choices. Web-based, free, no account required (optional for easier re-use), people being polled contacted by email - no login required to respond.
Minutebase - Tool to plan, document and follow-up meetings. Ideal for sharing agendas and meeting outcomes / actions. Web-based, free for accounts with one person arranging meeting with unlimited number of attendees, meeting organiser requires an account.
Posterous - Blog platform that allows messages to be submitted by email. Ideal for creating a team journal or project diary - multiple authors can contribute and access can be restricted by password. Web-based, free, owner requires an account but other contributors can just submit from by email.
[Added] Tungle - A tool to share your availability and to schedule meetings with people - initiated by you or them (has some feature overlap with Doodle). Ideal for deciding when to meet instead of the normal to and fro with lists of dates to all the meeting attendees. Also a great way to make you availability visible to someone outside your organisation without access to your corporate calendar. Tungle's connection to your calendar is via a desktop sync program (for Outlook) or web interface (for online calendars like Google's), free, user requires and account but contacts see availability via the web without a login.
[Added] Box.net - An online file-sharing and collaboration tool with online editing, sharing and the ability to assign 'tasks' to be performed on documents. Ideal for creating a project workspace with controls and tracking normally requiring a complex enterprise tool like Sharepoint. Web-based, free for simple features such as file-sharing but complex features are paid-for, users require accounts for most tasks but files can be shared or received from others without a login.
This is a good list so-far, but it feels a bit light in the 'personal tools' category - particularly those to simplify or accelerate otherwise slow or tedious tasks. Further suggestions would be really welcome in the comments...
