A co-worker asked me for some options for online collaboration - web tools to help members of committee or task group to easily communicate with one another, edit documents, post comments and so forth from any where at anytime.

E-mail is rather inadequate and can be unwieldy. Everyone might not get a message, if the subject changes the messages can be difficult to organize. Different email programs treat attachments differently. Aggressive spam filters may even prevent the messages from getting through. However, even with all of these pitfalls, e-mail software is still used most often for collaborative projects because everyone has it, uses it on a daily basis and knows how to use it - at least the basics. Nevertheless, I am a proponent of exploring alternatives, such as the following:
 
1. A simple option is to create a blog. I know blogs are not what you might consider as a online collaborative tool, but blogs are easy to use (that's why millions have them and even more read them). Blogs do not have to be just for self-expression, marketing or political campaigning. In LifeType, the free open source blogging platform we use for Mount Blog, a single blog can be created with multiple user accounts with one person being the blog owner. You could post articles or topics and others could comment on them, so that not everyone would need a user account. You can upload a wide variety of attachments (doc, xls, pdf, images etc.). You can assign categories and tags. Everything would be search-able. The blog can be hidden from others and require a password to access it if you want to make it private using the secretblog plug-in.

2. Wiki's are very popular collaboration tools. The free form nature is a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.  I have been experimenting with Xwiki on our file server as a possible staff intranet document management/collaboration tool.  It has numerous features, both basic and advanced. It can be as complex or as simple as you want. Xwiki includes support for traditional wiki syntax, as well, as WYSIWYG word processor style editing. It includes version control, PDF output of any page or series of pages, attachments, commenting, RSS feeds, full text search and rights management. Of course, Xwiki is just one of many wikis in existence. Visit WikiMatrix to compare a wide variety of free and commercial wiki applications.

 

ActiveCollab screenshot

 

3. BaseCamp is a popular commercial project management/collaboration tool. There is an open source alternative called ActiveCollab . I had set up sites for the finance committee and the Lyonsnetwork, but neither appears to be active now. It has many features and is active development.

4. A fourth option to consider is Google Documents & Spreadsheets. Not only can you upload Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, but the documents can be shared and edited by others. Google Docs in conjunction with Google's Mail, Talk and Calendar tools makes for a strong online suite of collaborative applications.

I could go on with other tools, but the above will give you a good start. The blogs are easy way to start, but a wiki has a lot of flexibility, as does Google Docs. BaseCamp or ActiveCollab provide a framework or structure for your group project. Either way, I think any of these tools go beyond email as an effective means of working with others online.