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Small group collaboration in real time
RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers
Published: September 12, 2014
Team collaborative software/ cloud programs are now a part of many law firms. But there are many smaller collaborative projects that just don’t require a large practice management platform or large, expensive group chat rooms.
Quickly coming over the horizon is the next wave of collaboration tools, that now include several startups, and that create small group chatrooms in which a self-selected and limited team can video chat, text chat, and file share over any platform in real time.
The team’s efforts are walled off from the rest of the world, and the apps essentially create a dedicated and archived email service and chat room for this one team or project.
One of these apps, Slack, started in February; a headline in The Verge said it is “killing email,” because a project’s email that goes to the team doesn’t come into the team member’s regular inbox.
These are very small programs, based on older technology called IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Security for these apps is an open question, but they may be worth looking at. They are free-to-inexpensive, with a variety of pricing options.
The five currently most publicized of these apps, which all seem to work about the same, are HipChat, Slack, Glip, Squiggle, and Campfire (there are more).
Slack seems to be getting the most pub (the WSJ and the Verge in one week) these days, but that could change by the time this column is published.
The various features that these apps can have (so far) are “persistent” chat (archived and searchable conversations), screen sharing, video and text chatting, along with group and individual chatting in various combinations, drag-and-drop file sharing, instant messaging, push notifications (so you are notified, for instance, when a team member signs in), emoticons (for the younger set), secure guest access, cross-platform fixed and mobile capabilities, and customizability, among other capabilities.
Also, look for integration with external services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Twitter, WorkingOn, or project tracking and management software like JIRA, Blossom or Asana, and other services.
If this kind of capability looks appealing, take a few minutes and check out the various apps/services to see what service might meet your needs.
Happy new technology hunting!