While this blog isn’t about politics, it’s interesting to learn how a political candidate in the USA is using both Basecamp and wikis to organise the campaign and the volunteers. And it was primarily the volunteers who asked for the wikis.

Below are a few heavily edited snippets, but read the whole article at: How the Barack Obama Campaign Uses Wikis to Organize Volunteers.

… organizing a campaign across a state the size of Texas, both in terms of number of people and geographical size is a daunting task.

…The Obama campaign is using software from business intranet provider Central Desktop to manage “precinct captains” — volunteers who get out the vote and spread the campaign message in specific precincts across the state.

… Central Desktop is a wiki-based collaboration tool that competes with 37Signals’ Basecamp.

… the idea to use collaboration software to manage precinct captains was actually something that bubbled up in the campaign from the grassroots volunteers who were out in the field.

…The specific appeal of Central Desktop’s wiki-based approach is that allows volunteers to shape the messaging and quickly collaborate with each other without the need to go through a webmaster.

[Via Read/WriteWeb: How the Barack Obama Campaign Uses Wikis to Organize Volunteers.]

Does your organisation need to organise people? Basecamp has a free option — you could try it out. And there are plenty of free wikis around that you could experiment with.

Have you already had experience with Basecamp or wikis? Tell us your experiences in the comments.

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There’s a world of difference between emailing documents around for each contributor to have their say, and simply sharing a document in a place where all can access it, potentially working on it at the same time, and maybe discussing it as you go, through the same web page.

Read/WriteWeb carries a detailed feature comparison between Office Live Workspace and Google Docs (see below). If you collaborate with others on documents then you should definitely try out these online / web-enabled offerings, or others such as Zoho.

The screenshot shows me using Google Docs to chat with a friend about a spreadsheet she was using to evaluate some business ideas. I’ve disguised names and actual content so as to preserve her privacy. Because we were both online at the same time, with the document open, we were able to chat about it and discuss details.

Another possibility is to use Mac screen sharing, as explained by Adam Engst in a recent TidBITs column (see below). While Google Docs is completely open to any user and Office Live favours those who use Microsoft Office, the Mac screen sharing technique obviously suits Mac users.

Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs

Integration

Google Docs is the whole offering - there is no offline software to use, but if you needed to edit files with offline software, like Microsoft Office or Open Office, because you hit a wall with Google Docs’ current abilities, you could do so by downloading the file to your PC.

However, since Office Live Workspace is the web-enabled aspect of Microsoft Office software, integration is key. From within the workspace, you can click “edit” to open the file with the Microsoft Office program. The service also offers an add-in that works with Office XP, 2003, or 2007. The add-in allows you to open and save documents to and from the workspace via the software’s File Menu (XP, 2003) or Office menu (2007).

[Via Read/WriteWeb: Office Live Workspace vs Google Docs: Feature-by-Feature Comparison.]

Leopard’s iChat Screen Sharing Perfect for Quick Collaboration

Collaborative editing isn’t new to TidBITS. We’ve made plenty of use of SubEthaEdit, and Tonya’s mind was already in a collaborative space from playing recently with Google Docs and Zoho Writer. But iChat screen sharing adds voice contact, and you’re not merely sharing a document, you’re editing and reading the same document simultaneously in real time, so it’s perfect for quick, lightweight brainstorming and cooperation. Not to mention the instant gratification of solving, in five minutes, with excellent communication, a problem that might have taken our heavyweight email correspondence system two days, with far clunkier communication. In short, it was efficient, satisfying, successful, fast, and fun. You should try it!

[Via : TidBITS Business Apps: Leopard's iChat Screen Sharing Perfect for Quick Collaboration.]

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