Before you begin

I am going to illustrate the collaboration process using the Abicollab collaboration service. This service is free, you only need to sign up, check your email, and then verify your account. You do not have to use Abiword to take advantage of Abicollab. But since Abiword has the feature built in, it only makes sense to take advantage of this collaboration server via Abiword. if you opt to do this with a different word processor you will have to manually upload and download the files. The ability to manually upload and download files is handy when your fellow collaborators are not using Abiword.

You will also notice, in your Abicollab account, you can add groups and friends. Take advantage of this because it will make the collaboration process even easier.

Once you have signed up for the service, you are ready to start collaborating. So let’s see just how this is done.

Connecting Abiword to Abicollab

Figure 1

When you open up Abiword click on Collaborate > Accounts. When this new window opens you will want to click the Add button to open the Add Account window (see Figure 1).  Remember that Abicollab account you created? This is where you add the credentials for it. Select the AbiCollab.net Collaboration Service from the dropdown list. Once you do that, enter your credentials, and finally select if you want to connect at startup.

After you have completed that you are ready to start collaborating.

Collaboration

Figure 2

This is actually quite simple. If you have yet to upload a document then fire up Abiword and start writing. When you are finished click Collaborate > Share Document. In the new window you can select which buddies or groups you want to share the document with and then click OK (see Figure 2). This will upload your file to your AbiCollab account. Anyone you have selected to collaborate on this document will be able to collaborate on that document.

You can also open shared documents. To do this click Collaboration > Open Shared Document and, from the resulting window, select the document you want to open for editing. This will automatically download the shared document and open it with Abiword.

The only issue I have seen with this system is there is no way to determine if a file is already opened by a user. This could cause some serious issues when one person makes an edit prior to another making a different edit on a previously saved file. AbiCollab needs to come up with some form of locking mecahanism before this is of any real value to serious collaborative users.

Final thoughts

Although not perfect, Abiwords ability to collaborate makes it a very unique tool in the world of word processors. I like where this is going, and once AbiCollab works out some means to lock files I will use it in earnest.

And then there’s OpenGoo. OpenGoo is an open source collaboration tool that is fully web-based, easy to use, simple to install, and free to use. But is OpenGoo for you and your company? This tutorial will show you how to get an OpenGoo installation up and running so you can kick the tires and find out if it is exactly what you need.

Features

OpenGoo offers all of the standard features of a business-level collaboration suite:

• Text documents
• Spreadsheets (coming soon)
• Presentations
• Task Lists
• E-mails
• Calendars
• Web Links
• Contacts

All you need to install an OpenGoo server is:

• Apache >= 2.0
• MySQL >= 5.0 (5.2 recommended)
• MySQL >= 4.1 with InnoDB support

Now, let’s get on with that installation.

Install

This installation will be done on a Ubuntu 9.10 setup. I have installed this on both desktop and server installation, but regardless of which you have installed, you will need a LAMP server running.

The first thing you need to do is to download the zip file from the OpenGoo download page. I downloaded and installed the 1.6 beta version which works nicely.

Once that file is downloaded, move that file to /var/www. Now, change to the /var/www/ directory and then unzip it with the command:

sudo unzip opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip

NOTE: If you downloaded a different release, edit that command to reflect the release number.

Once that files is unzipped rename the directory with the command:

sudo mv opengoo_1.6.beta-2.zip opengoo

Now change into the /var/www/opengoo directory and issue the following commands:

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/config

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/cache

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/upload

sudo chmod -R ugo+w /var/www/opengoo/tmp

With all the right permissions in play, it is time to create the database. I like to use PhpMyAdmin to make database creation simple. For more information about installing this tool check out my article “Install PhpMyAdmin for easy MySQL administration“. Use this tool to create a database called “opengoo” (No quotes).

Time to begin the web-based installation.

Fire up your browser and point it to:

http://IP_TO_SERVER/opengoo

Where IP_TO_SERVER is the actual IP Address of your OpenGoo server. You will be greeted with usual welcome screen that will tell you exactly what is going to happen during the installation. Click the Next button to continue on.

The second screen will run the environment checks. If everything gets and OK (and it should be if your LAMP server is up and running and you’ve taken care of all the permissions) click the Next button to continue on.

Figure 1

The third page of the installation (see Figure 1) is the first step that should require you to input any data.

The information should be fairly self explanatory. There is one point of note: If you plan on allowing access to your local LAN you will need to change the Absolute script URL to reflect the proper IP address (or domain).

Once you have all of this information in place, click the Next button which will take you to the congratulations screen where you only need click the Finish button to assume you’ve completed the installation.

Figure 2

Ah, but there is one more step. Figure 2 shows the final step for the installation. Here you need to create an administrator for your installation.

Setup your administrative user and click Submit. You can now log in to your OpenGoo server with your administrative user.

The basic interface

You will log into your OpenGoo server by entering the same address you did for the installation. When you log in you will be at the OpenGoo Getting Started Page (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

The OpenGoo installation will offer a very simple information page that will help you get started on your decision. But as you can see, the interface is laid out quite well. The tools are accessible and very user-friendly.

After using OpenGoo for a while I can assure you if you like Google’s suite of tools, you will like OpenGoo.

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a very cost effect collaboration solution look no further than the open source OpenGoo suite of tools. Not only is it easy to use, it’s simple to install, and free of charge.

Users with a Google account, for example one from a Gmail account, can access Google Fusion Tables right away. Each user gets 250 Megabytes of storage space on the Google servers and the ability to upload data that cannot exceed 100 Megabytes per data set. Currently only Microsoft Excel (xls) and comma separated value (csv) files are supported by the Google data management product. Uploaded data can then be shared with collaborators with the additional option to share only part of the data with different collaborators.

The data can be visualized by the user in various ways including the default table form, pie charts, bars or intensity maps among other forms of visualization.

It is furthermore possible to edit the data at hand or to merge it with another set of data. Merging tables could not be easier. All that needs to be done is to select the two spreadsheets that should be merged and which columns to use for matching data across the two tables.

Google Fusion Tables is an easy to use data management service that comes with an interesting set of features that the developers plan to expand in the future based on user feedback.

The session starter selects an application to share, for example a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The shared document will be displayed brighter in this case than the parts of the desktop that are not shared. It is furthermore possible to post additional files that every user can access. Lastly it is possible to preview the desktop how users who join would see it.

Several options are available:

A toolbar will be displayed on the top of the screen that can be used to start and join sessions and to access the options. An option to share documents is offered in selected Microsoft applications after installation of the software. Invited users can take control of a session to work on the document. Changes are automatically tracked and logged so that everyone can identify which user made the changes to the document.

Microsoft SharedView offers a way to quickly share and work together with multiple users on documents.

A complex activity on the other hand adds due dates, reminders, tags, context, additional users and contents to the basic information. Each activity can be made up of sub-activities.

Contacts can be invited from various sources including Konolive accounts but also external sources like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN or Plaxo. Keep in mind that the login credentials have to be supplied to be able to do so.

KonoLive can be an interesting alternative to other GTD software programs if the users do not mind the use of Adobe Air. The software has been designed with ease and mind and it is indeed easy and comfortable to work with other users in KonoLive.

Update: KonoLive has been updated in the meantime. A free KonoLive 2Go version for the web and a desktop version called KonoLive Pro.

You can find out more about KonoLive Pro here on the project page, and here about KonoLive 2 Go. KonoLive 2 Go is an Internet application that users can run from a web browser.

Gobby was released in 2005 by the Ox539 developer group and features a client/server architecture that allows for easy remote connection between two peers. Gobby contains its own server (Sobby) so there’s no secondary installation or configuration.

Getting and Installing

As Gobby is very common, it is generally in repositories for every distribution. This makes installing Gobby simple. Open up your distributions’ Add/Remove Software application and do a search for “gobby” (no quotes). Once you find Gobby, select it and click Apply.

Once Gobby is installed you should find the executable entry in the Internet menu.

Starting a Gobby Session

When you first start Gobby you will see an empty Gobby window. From this window you can either “Create session” (become a host for a session) or “Join Session” (join a remote Gobby host).  Click on the “Create Session” button which will open up a session configuration window.

Create Session

If you don’t enter a password anyone starting up Gobby can join your session. If this is a “private” collaboration, it’s best to set up a password.

Now for those wishing to join an already running click on the Join Session button and the Join Gobby Session window will open.

Join Session

You can select your Gobby server from the list or you can enter the Host manually. Once you have entered the correct information click OK and you will join the session.

Once you have joined the session you will want to open up two extra windows: Document List and User List. The Document List window will show you all available Gobby documents available to you. If you are not the creator of a document you can click on a document and subscribe to that document. When you subcribe to a document a new tab for that document will open in your Gobby window.

Gobby Session

As you can, in the image above, Gobby does syntax highlighting. If you click on the Edit menu you will see a Syntax submenu. From that submenu you can select from any of the 65 different types of syntax highlighting.

Another nice feature of Gobby is that it includes a chat window. With a chat window you can actually communicate as you collaborate.

Gobby Chat

After you have done all of your work you have to  save  each document individually and, if you want, you can save the chat session. To save a single document just click on the tab of the document to save, go to the Session menu entry, and click Save Document. To save the chat session go to the Gobby menu entry and select Save Session.

Final Thoughts

Gobby has a number of possible applications from development collaboration to document collaboration. If you have a need for an easy to use, free collaboration software, this is what you want.