Collaborative

Booktype is an open source platform for writing and publishing print and digital books. The goal is to make it easier for people and organisations to collaborate on and publish books, using a variety of different outputs. Booktype can output to print-ready PDF files, epub files for eReaders like Kindle or Kobo, word processing (LibreOffice) files or HTML webpages. You can host the software yourself on a server, or set up a free Booktype Pro account, where Sourcefabric can install, host and update Booktype for you.

ProjectLibre is a project management tool similar to Microsoft Project. It allows you to plan your campaign or project by creating different tasks, stages and milestones against a calendar. You can allocate who will do each task and indicate how much time, money and other resources will be needed to complete them. The tool also provides different ways of visualising your project, including Gantt charts (bar charts linked to a timeline) and PERT diagrams. If you want to use online project management software then there are some similar tools available.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a way of tracking a company’s interactions with customers and clients. It involves using technology to organise and automate communication. CiviCRM is a free sofware internet-based approach to CRM, aimed specifically at NGOs, charities and other civic groups. In practice, it can be used by any organisation that would benefit from keeping track of their contacts.

Skype is the most popular service around for voice calls over the internet. You can also use live text chat and send files. Many international organisations rely on Skype to reduce their costs, using it instead of the telephone. It makes online collaboration between global grassroots communities easier, as it is both cheap and universal, supporting calls to landlines and mobile phones.

Crabgrass is an online tool which enables group collaboration. It allows groups to do things like share files, track projects, make decisions and store documents online. Using Crabgrass, multiple groups can work together on projects in a way that supports a democratic process. It is possible to rate content, add keywords, and comment on or annotate content. It includes tools like private wikis, task lists, file repositories, approval voting and ranked voting.

Cloud computing, where data and services are stored online instead of on your local computer, offers a lot of advantages. If you have used Dropbox or Google Docs you may be familiar with the convenience they offer. However, there are also concerns about the move towards the use of corporate cloud computing. Some of these concerns can be overcome by setting up your own cloud-like system using a service like ownCloud. With ownCloud, you can access files through a web interface or an application on your computer which keeps certain folders updated and sychronised.

WordPress is a tool used to create websites and blogs. There are two ways to use WordPress: you can download the software from wordpress.org and install it on your own server, or you can sign up to use it as a blog service at wordpress.com. If you use the blog service, you have less customisation options, but the hosting is free and the technical side is taken care of, so you can focus on content.

Amara is a free online subtitling service. It allows you to add or import text to create subtitles for a video hosted somewhere else on the Internet. The interface is easy to use, allowing you to play, pause and review your video as you type the text of the dialogue. You then match the text to the timing of the video. Subtitles can then be made available for other users to review and improve; or they can add extra subtitles in a different language.

Flickr is a popular photo sharing site and one of the largest online image repositories. Flickr is very popular with a large number of professional and amateur photographers. It has many features which make it easy for you to present lots of images through tagging and arranging them in different groups or sets. You can also control how images are shared. You can keep keep some out of the public view, and allow others to be used freely. You can create groups of friends and share your photos only with them.