Business school means collaboration and sharing work across both multiple computers, multiple students, and multiple teams. We need to share documents and schedule meetings. We need to both synchronous and asynchronous communication. And we need to do this in such a way that even non-geeky fellow students feel comfortable. Here are some (free!) tools which I’ve found helpful.
FolderShare, now owned by Microsoft, provides a P2P tool that shares and synchronizes files across multiple computers. For example, I have set up a set of “Babson” folders on my laptop and desktop and, after installing the free FolderShare software on each machine have nearly instantaneous replication and synchronization of the files and folder structure. Furthermore, folders can be shared with other registered FolderShare users. The rights of these users can be controlled: read only, read and update, add documents, add and delete documents, and manage user rights are all options. I’m working on a project with a friend, and rather than email files back and forth, we’ve used FolderShare to mirror the documents. FolderShare has a number of advantages over online file sharing tools: you don’t need to be online to access files, local files are fast and responsive, all Windows Explorer and OS/X Finder (yeah, there’s a Mac version of the client) functionality is maintained, and post-installation everything works quickly and automatically. There are, however, some disadvantages: FolderShare doesn’t handle collisions (copies are created with new names) or versioning, and deletions are more or less propagated to all machines. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to use FolderShare in conjunction with some backup or archiving software (we’re using CVS for that).
37Signals has a great product called Campfire. It’s a web-based chat application, allowing groups of users to easily talk and share files. Apparently, it’s fantastic. Unfortunately, it’s not free. I wanted to allow my entire section (all 65 or so of us) to potentially talk at the same time. Roomsays.com provides all that functionality, for free. Right now we’re using it to prep for a test tomorrow. People can ask and answer questions without sending out a group email, and we can post our cheat sheets in there, too. A few minor quibbles with the software: even if you’re already logged in to the site, you still need to reenter your password if you join a room as a registered user. Also, when you enter a room, you don’t see any of the earlier messages. But, honestly, how can you argue with free?
It’s not really software, but sometimes you need to be able to talk, not just IM. My groups have tried Skype, but having a real number to dial is sometimes easier. There are a number of similar services, but LifeOffice’s free teleconferencing worked well, didn’t require any personal information or credit card, and the sound quality is great. Combining conferencing with group text chat should work pretty well.
If you’re using Microsoft Word, the 2002 (XP) and later versions allow you send a document for review by email, and automatically merge the changes back in once you’ve received the updates. If you’re tired of trying to figure out who has the latest copy, it’s worth trying this tool.
Finally, for straight up general communication and document sharing there’s the myriad of blog tools. My wife has set up a private group blog for her PhD classmates on WordPress.com. Since they only meet once a week it’s been a great bonding tool and a handy way to share information.
You’ll note there are no Wikis and none of the purpose-built student applications. To be honest, they’re too geeky and too complicated. I have been using a combination of ScheduleWorld and the Funambol Outlook SyncML client to synchronize my Outlook/Exchange and Google calendars. Here’s where I learned to make it work. Totally geeky, but the upshot is you can all look here and see how busy I am.
