Blogs
Podcasts
Moblogging

FTP
RSS
E-mail notification
Dashboard

Web page
Desktop application (e.g., Visio)
Mobile phone application

Description of selected terms

Automated e-mail newsletter: an e-mailed, message-based newsletter that is automatically generated at a specified time interval by software that aggregates blog entries from a database and formats the newsletter using a template. The newsletter provides ways for recipients to manage their own subscriptions.

Moblogging: "Mobile blogging." The ability to send posts to a blog from an e-mail account—an e-mail message is sent to a specific address and the blog software posts the message as a blog entry that can then be viewed on the Web page, distributed via RSS or an automated newsletter, etc. Includes the ability to post to a blog from a mobile phone.

Open standard event format: Widely used data formats for event information, e.g., .ics, iCal, vCal, vCalendar, etc. Clicking on a link using one of these data formats can automatically enter an event into a calendar application. The formats are also used to share calendars, to exchange event information between applications, or to synch devices.

Digital dashboard: Usually a Web page or a desktop application designed to present single-view, "quick glance" monitoring information from a variety of data sources, with programming built in to alert the user about changes in important elements of the dashboard, such as new messages, new files posted to a server, new forum entries, new members, etc. Microsoft Visio can be used as a desktop dashboard with links to Excel spreadsheets, Access databases, etc. The digital dashboard concept is similar to the gauges in a car dashboard, except that the digital dashboard monitors an organization or a group or a set of phenomena represented in data, such as stock prices or environmental data.

Shared applications: Google Docs, Zimbra.com and other shared online applications commonly reproduce desktop, office applications on the Internet, such as word processors, spreadsheets, project management tools, etc. The important difference is that documents created online can be shared and edited by members of a group (with authorized privileges), so that the single copy of the document online is the one most recently edited by an authorized group member. Wiki pages can also serve this function, although only for simple text preparation. (There is also now a wiki-based spreadsheet application, called WikiCalc, developed by the inventor of the desktop spreadsheet program, Dan Bricklin.) Storing documents online and using a shared application also means people can work on these documents anywhere they have an Internet connection, and people can be invited to look at the document without being able to edit it.

Description of selected tools

Expresson Engine: Increasingly the platform of choice for Web designers, bloggers, and people creating sites with the features mentioned above. A commercial product, but with low prices: the noncommercial version costs $149. Superb technical support, easy installation and use, and the program is being redesigned into a 2.0 version, which should be released in 2008, and which will probably set the bar for content-management software. Runs on PHP and mySQL. The code is completely accessible (but not Open Source) and there are many add-on modules and plug-ins available from third parties. Expression Engine can be highly customized. The data it generates are open standard and can be archived and reused easily. The University of Texas at Austin is increasingly moving to Expression Engine.

Drupal: The platform of choice for free, Open Source software platforms used for blogging, content management, events, newsletters, forums, etc. Not an easy installation, and a somewhat steep learning curve, but the program is very powerful, chock full of features, and is supported by a very active community of developers who offer dozens of add-ons. Runs on PHP and mySQL. Its backend data are open standard and easily archived.

CivicSpace: An offshoot (or "fork") of Drupal, but with a more limited set of features focused on building collaborative groups, advocacy groups, political organizing Web sites, event calendars, etc. Was originally developed to support the Howard Dean presidential campaign, then funded by the Democratic National Committee. It's free and Open Source. It has a learning curve with a gentler slope than Drupal, but it has fewer features.

Mambo: Another free, Open Source content management platform with blogging, calendars, forums, an image gallery, etc. Also written in PHP. Mambo has its fans, but it is probably less well-supported than Drupal, and also less flexible. Mambo is getting better, however, and is used on many sophisticated Web sites. Joomla is a version of Mambo that has a somewhat more modern interface, although the programs are very similar. Both are about to release new versions that are expected to be the best for accessibility standards, which are often required by public sector agencies.

Plone: Plone is an extremely robust and complicated content management system that is usually reserved for huge Web sites or organizations with many divisions, offices, authors, servers, etc. The City of Austin is currently redoing its entire Web presence using Plone system-wide. The package is free and Open Source, but it has a significant learning curve. It is written in Python, which is a programming language that is very powerful but which has produced relatively few expert programmers. Plone is for projects with large budgets, big tasks, long development times, etc. But it is easily the most powerful package in this list. A similar Open Source platform for complex sites is called Bricolage.

More information about collaborative software applications can be found on Wikipedia using this link.

Here is a white paper from IBM titled "Using open source software to design, develop, and deploy a collaborative Web site, Part 1: Introduction and overview." (IBM chose Drupal.)

Prepared by Gary Chapman of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, August 22, 2007