White paper tools-for_scaling_your_news_organization-1

House of Local
Where Local media lives

How do you get things done?
Tools for managing your assets in
an expanding organization: A
white paper (and webinar) on
scaling

A white paper and webinar prepared for the
KDMC Leadership Institute, October 2010

Susan Mernit, Oakland Local/House of Local
Research assistance from Meg Bertoni, House of Local
project manager

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary p. 3
Why web-based tools work p. 3
Figuring out what you need p. 5
What are the core tools you use to manage a project? P. 5
What's good for what? A useful chart p. 10
Putting these tools to work: It takes organization p. 11
Appendix 1: Tools reviewed and discussed p. 13
Appendix 2: Comments from respondents p. 31
Author bios & contact info p. 36

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Executive Summary
As organizations expand, scaling up with tools that make it easier to manage
workflow, schedule, and planning is an essential task. Given that most
organizations don't have the time or money to build their own custom systems to
manage workflow for freelancer and remote staffers as a means to improve
infrastructure, what are the free and low cost web-tools organizations can use to
create efficiency of scale?
The focus of this white paper (and the related webinar) is to look at tools used by
agile media, news and information-based organizations and offers descriptions
and guidelines on best ways to use them, appraisals of what their strengths and
weaknesses are, and some guidance on how you might you evaluate them and
add them to your work flow.
Throughout the paper, I frequently refer to Oakland Local, which I co-founded in
October 2009, for examples of how we use many of these tools. However,
several of the tools I discuss are used by much larger organizations, including
Tech Soup Global, The Center for Investigative Reporting, The John S and
James L Knight Foundation, and numerous hyper-local and regional news
organizations. In other words, these tools—and the recommendations on how to
use them—whether you have 1 paid staffer on the payroll or 500.

Why web-based tools work
For starters, welcome to the future. Imagine yourself in a world where amazing
project management tools, database systems, calendars, schedulers, talk tools
and more are all free, facilitating effortless communication across teams and
enterprises that span the country, even the planet. Imagine that instead of
relying on your BigCo’s VPN and Internet (Hello, Microsoft Outlook!), you have
access to a suite of tool available from any web browser and accessible on
mobile Smartphones.
In this world, your organization can evaluate and select web-based services that
are stored in the cloud and that are either free or priced based on number of
seats, amount of storage or usage of special features.
Some of the stars of this universe are 37 Signal’s Basecamp, Highrise,
Backpack, and Campfire, tools that support project management, contact
manage databases, task management and scheduling. Other stars are the
Drupal-based(and free) project management site Open Atrium, and the also free
Google productivity suite: Calendar, Documents, Groups, and (for some) Wave.
However, no matter what the product source (or set), the value of web-based
tools is that they offer affordable and often free ways to manage—and organize--
a virtual team. Whether your staff are freelancers strung around one city that

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come together in coffee shops to discuss specific projects, or staffers operating
remotely in dozens of small satellite operations, web based tools allow you to
create efficient systems for information sharing, communication and
collaboration.
It’s a new era
As recently at eight years ago, many media people worked for large
organizations with bureaus scattered around the globe, or for more regional
corporate organizations that had multiple companies under their umbrella. Either
way, it was common to have an IT person, a VPN, a Microsoft network, an
Intranet and lots of rules about what tools you could—or couldn’t—introduce into
that environment.
Today, many of us are more likely to be working for a giant start-up, growing so
quickly there’s no time to put proprietary systems in place, or for a cash-strapped
family or legacy co whose infrastructure isn’t up to serving a more distributed—
and mobile-workforce, or for a start-up or small business whose infrastructure is
all from third parties (QuickBooks, anyone?) In each of these cases, the VPN,
the intranet, the great IT tech just aren’t happening. Not in this economy.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that the need to manage your team, and your
business is any less intense. If anything, with people not in the same office ay the
same time, the needs to manage workflow are more intense. How else are you
going to stay organized and on-task?
The focus of this white paper, and the related webinar, then, is both to provide a
list of tools, some useful categorizations, and some recommendations for tools
you can use to help manage staff and projects, It is also means to offer some
use cases so that you can get some guidance and support in determining which
tools to try out.
A brief digression: Where did all these tools come from, anyway?
If you’re not an operations-oriented person, or your comfort zone has been the
Microsoft product suite (Project, Outlook, SharePoint), you might wonder how
this rabid proliferation in web-based productivity tools came about so fast. The
short answer is that the rise in all the new web-based tools is partly due to the
rise in SAS (software as services) and cloud computing (hosting services in “the
cloud,” a distributed server network). Services like Amazon’s E3, among others,
make it easy to run SAS-style companies at much lesser cost than maintaining
your own jumbo server farm.
However, the rise in this tools is equally attributable to the huge leap in free
agents aka self-employed people, small businesses, start-ups, and others
operating in an increasingly fragmented-and depressed—economy. All these
folks who need quality software tools and services to help run their businesses

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but can’t pay big-company the prices intranets demand. So, lots of new business
opportunities have arisen—that new companies have jumped in to fill.
Interestingly, these tools don’t offer lesser quality that old-school BigCo intranet
systems offered. In fact, in many cases, they offer improved functionality and
greater flexibility, often because they need to serve such a wide base of users
they have to have more flexibility built in that one company's old-school IT
department would be able to support.
This paper—and related webinar-- assume that you are interested in finding web-
based tools you can use to manage and scale your organization, that you
understand some training and support will be required to get everyone onboard
at a basic skill level, and that you need systems that will help you manage and
grow.
With those ideas in mind, let’s start exploring.

Figuring out what you need
What kinds of tools are going to help you scale and manage your project and/or
organization? This list identifies some basics that are helpful to most managers,
and then discusses some more specialized tools.
First of all, there’s no way your organization can operate without shared access
to scheduling, project management, and communications tools. The suite of
tools I am most fond of, and recommend to the broadest range of projects are
the following:
Google Docs: Create and share documents, spreadsheets and forms on the web
via logging into Google docs and viewing and editing documents. Google docs
will upload and convert documents from other formats, as well as allow you to
create unique documents to share, edit and view.
Google calendar: In addition to maintaining personal calendars, Google
calendars allow you to create shared calendars for projects, posting critical
dates, milestones, and events.
Google Groups: Need an easy way to communicate with a large team that isn’t a
series of individual email threads? Google groups can be used to create private
groups for internal communication that can either be public groups or private
groups.
Basecamp: 37 Signal’s Basecamp is my hands-down favorite for having a shared
online destination to post milestones, assign tasks, and share messages and
files for a project. With Basecamp, you pay a monthly fee to have a set number
of projects, each separate from the others; it’s the best equivalent of a share

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corporate workspace I’ve seen—and it’s so easy to use everyone can make the
adjustment.

What are the core tools you use to manage a project?
Google docs
At Oakland Local, we maintain a Google docs spreadsheet of our news budget
and editorial assignments that is the heartbeat of our editorial operation. While
we don’t allow everyone to see this document, all the editors, co-founders and
key people have access and we use it to plan stories for the week, evaluate how
we are doing on assigning, and flag items that seem to be missing in action.
We maintain a separate, and equally valuable, list of media sponsorships via
Google docs: in that list, we track groups whose events we are promoting in
exchange for their promoting us, and we break down the milestones the team
has to deliver: getting ads up, calendaring, writing advances for example.
We also use Google docs to create and share call logs for organizations
Oakland Local is working with to offer news literacy and social media training;
using this tool makes it easy for everyone on the training team to see and
comment on call notes and training session reports.
Google calendar
Google calendar doesn’t work as well as Google docs, but it works well enough
to be a useful tool. At Oakland Local, we use GC to create shared schedules of
training programs, editorial meetings and other events. We also rely on it to
check conference room availability at TechLinimal, the co-working space where
we rent desk space.
Google groups
In the early days of Oakland Local, we needed a way to send out broadcast news
to groups of freelance contributors or non-profit partners. Google Groups was a
low-maintenance free means to create a mailing list we could easily message
and send information to. We still use the list occasionally.
Basecamp
I’ve often asked myself why can’t we , if we like Google tools so much, just stop
paying the $24.99 a month we spend on Basecamp? Could the free Google
suite be enough to manage our dates, schedules and plans? Why spent the extra
cash?

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Truth is, every time I conduct this appraisal, the answer is always comes back
no—Basecamp has a set of integrated tools and an organization structure that
makes it well worth the money we spend every month.
For one thing, Basecamp allows you to organize projects by companies and
teams, so you can easily manage and track who has access to what, a feature
that is available—but far more buried—in Google docs.
For another, Basecamp has a To Do list and a Milestones feature that each allow
you to set goals, ties them to dates, identify the tasks needed to make them
happen, and assign them to specific staffers—who can then get notifications and
reminders. This means that I can take the Google docs spreadsheet of tasks we
need to do to support our media partners, create a To-Do list on Basecamp, and
assign those tasks to people, including our interns.
Furthermore, Basecamp’s Attached files and file feature allows everyone on the
team to easily post and store documents related to the project. The Google docs
spreadsheet is a terrific place to keep our very dynamic news budget and
assignment sheet, but it’s not the best place to keep copies of our sales &
marketing presentations—we post those on Basecamp, where folks on our team
with access can easily find and refer to them.
The killer Basecamp feature, of course, is email notification. Although all this
information is flowing through the Basecamp site, much of what the team sees
are email notifications about tasks, timelines, files, etc that come in as message
to their personal email inboxes. This means that not only can a team member
read a Basecamp message on a mobile phone if they have email, it means they
can choose whether to respond via email or by going online and logging into the
Basecamp site. This flexibility strikes a balance between information flow and
tech support that feels very good to most people.
What if you just want a task manager?
For some people, Basecamp is overkill. Too many features they are NOT going
to use. For many of those people, a simple task management tool, such as
Remember the Milk or Toodledo, is just what they need. These web-based
services allow you to enter tasks and get reminders and support to manage what
needs to be done—and you can even get alerts to your mobile phone. Even
better, these tools are not only good for your tasks—they allow sharing and
assigning tasks.

How do you manage meetings? Free Conference and Doodle
As anyone with a remote or freelance staff knows, managing meetings can be
another major headache. People are in different time zones, freelancers have
other projects to juggle, and may not be a corporate conference line. What to do?
The tools we rely on—as do many of the small business folks and media

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entrepreneurs I know—are Free Conference (for scheduling and making calls)
and Doodle (way to select times and dates that work best for everyone).
As I learned from Spot.us founder David Cohn, Free Conference will not only let
you schedule calls for groups at a low cost, they will let you create a unique
conference line number that you can use repeatedly. In addition, Free
Conference provides the means for you to arrange to record calls and/or receive
written transcriptions of calls if that’s what you need (for an additional fee).
And if your team is being picky about when they can gather for that virtual
meetings, the go-two tool is Doodle, a web-based time preferences selector that
allows you to create a set of meeting options, then invite participants to view and
select the best time for them, giving you the means to identify possible times
without sending hundred of emails around.

How about sending—or getting-- big files?
In every organization, there is always the moment when someone needs to send
you a file bigger that what your email system will allow. It could be a set of
photos, a movie or a Powerpoint preso—but whatever it is, the whale0sized
mega-byte count makes it too big to fit in your inbox. Those are the moments we
are thrilled to have access to YouSend It.com and Dropbox.com, free file-sharing
apps.

How does Dropbox work? Basically, it’s a web-based file-sharing system where
a user signs up for an account, uploads a big file to their account (think drop box
or locker), then notifies and invites other users to download those files to their
computer.
If you have free-lancers or remote staff who don’t have access to your video
sharing or Flickr accounts, having them send in Dropbox files is a great way to
get their materials into your hands.

I need to manage freelancer hours—how can I track that?
Basecamp has a somewhat more expensive project management option that
allows you to create a jobs tracking system you can use for staffers tracking time
spent on tasks, but I much prefer the free version of Toggl, which lets individuals
set up accounts to track their own hours, or the paid version of Toggl, which lets
an account holder set up multiple accounts for staffers to use. Either way, Toggl
will slice and dice your projects by client, by time frame, and in multiple other
ways, outputting and downloading the reports into PDFs and other formats.

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At Oakland Local (and scores of other organizations) we ask staffers to send us
their invoices, along with a copy of their Toggle sheets showing what they
worked on during the hours for which they are billing.

Communications tools
Back in the day, we used AOL’s IM Instant Messenger to talk amongst ourselves
at work. What can we use now?
If you need real-time style ways to talk privately or in groups with fellow staffers,
Google’s G talk and corporate enterprise talk tool Yammer both offer efficient
solutions.
For one-on-one conversations, G-talk, which can be accessed through G-mail, is
easy to use and hard to beat. If you don’t wanted to be seen by people on your
email list, you can make yourself invisible and then reach out to the folks you
want to talk with. There’s nothing more fun that being able to backchannel with a
fellow team member on G-talk while on the phone for a big group conference
call (or a client meeting).
If what you are seeking is a tool that will let you have multiple people chatting
within a private group, the tool to try is called Yammer. Yammer is basically an
application you download, install and then use like a private enterprise version of
Twitter. Even better, Yammer has tons of apps that make it usable on I-phones, I
-pads, Androids, Blackberries and so on. Basic access is free; more powerful—
and extensive—services have a monthly subscription model.
How do I show the developer what is broken?
If you’re tired of using Grab(Mac) or SnagIt(PC) to take snapshots of items on
your desktop or browsers, the application to look at using to capture images and
annotate them is called Skitch. Skitch allows users to take screenshots and
share them instantly with others, by email, Twitter, online, or any other methods
of sharing. Users can also add any sort of effects to the image, from cropping to
freehand image drawing. Basically this means you can “draw” or doodle” on an
image capture and send it to someone. If you ever need to tell a developer “This
button is too small,” in a way he/she can see it clearly, Skitch is your tool.

We’re getting into sales—how do I track my leads and deals?
37 Signals, the company that makes BaseCamp, has another tool that many
people like called High Rise. Highrise is basically a CRM, customer relationship
management, tool that lets you create a detailed relational database for contacts
and add in tasks and notes for each contact.

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My staffers want a wiki—which one should I use?
There are many good wiki tools out there, both free and paid—Social Text,
Seedwikii and PBWiki come to mind right away. The one I’ve worked with the
most, both because I think the interface is minimally better than some of the
others and because it’s free, is PB Wiki. Basically, a wiki offers users a
collaborative real-editing environment; the PB wiki tool offers many of the basic
features for free and upsells more high-end features for a fee. To set up a PB
Wiki, all it takes is an email address and a URL for the wiki links—the system
walks you through the rest of the steps really quickly and simply. Best of all, it is
easy to create wikis that are private and password protected, so id having a wiki
seems essential, PB Wiki is an easy way to make it happen.

What's good for what? A useful chart
Category Name URL Free Paid Rating

Collaborative Google https://www.google.com/documents X A
tools docs

Scheduling Google https://www.google.com/calendar X A
calendar

Live chat Google Talk https:// www.google.com/talk/ X B

Live group Yammer http://www.yammer.com/ X XX B
chat

To do lists Toodledo http://www.toodledo.com/ X XX B

To do lists Remember http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ X XX B
the Milk

Schedule 30 boxes http://30boxes.com/ X XX C
organizer

Scheduler Doodle https://www.doodle.com/ X A

Project Basecamp http:// basecamphq.com X XX A
management

Project Open http:// openatrium.com/ X B
management Atrium

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Project Many Moon http://www.manymoon.com/ X XX C
management

Wiki PB Wiki http://pbworks.com/ X XX B

Customer Highrise http://highrisehq.com/ X XX B
Relationship
Management
(CRM)

Image mark Skitch http://skitch.com/ X A
up

Large file Dropbox http://www.dropbox.com/ X XX A
transfer

Group emails Google http://groups.google.com/ X B
groups

Conference Free http://www.freeconference.com/ XX A
calls Conference

Tracking Toggl http://www.toggl.com X XX A
hours/tasks

What the ratings mean
A=Everyone can use this, very useful to most who try it
B= Many people like this, not everyone sticks with it
C= Useful to some, well worth a try

Putting these tools to work: It takes organization

Of course, the secret to success is not knowing which tools to use, it’s being able
to effectively use them. You can know exactly what to do, and have no clue
where to start (sound familiar?).
For Oakland Local, the most critical tools when we began were Basecamp (which
we used to plan the site with our development team), and Google docs (where
we soon established an editorial budget an assignment sheet, and a list of
contact info for both writers and community partners—tools we could not function
without.

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Similarly, the question to ask yourself is “Which problems of scaling and workflow
do I need to address first?” And then, “Who can work with me to be responsible
to make sure this solution is used consistently and works?”
For Oakland Local, making sure we had an editor who would work to maintain
the editorial budget and assignment sheet was essential. All of us contributed to
the partner and writers’ lists, but we put one person in charge of the assignment
sheet ands budget—and that make it work.
Another tactic for success is to take the time to introduce new tools to your team.
People appreciate a walk-through if they are being asked to use something
unfamiliar. If you have interns, a great strategy is to teach the tools to interns
and make them the go-to resources for people who need help getting
comfortable. And if not the interns, then you.
For my projects, the meta-list of scheduling and key milestones is what keeps
things going well. In many ways, my personal to-do list (which I keep in
Basecamp) is the orchestral score of everything that has to happen in a given
week or month, and I use it to cascade down milestones and tasks for other key
people.
Having consistent routines is also essential; we have a weekly staff meeting
every Monday, and we pay bills on the weekend—everyone knows those things,
and therefore they know to show up for assignments—and to send invoices on
Fridays.
Working with virtual tools and virtual teams has its challenges, but it can also be
very rewarding, and as you set programs and procedures in place to support
your organization, you will have the pleasure of seeing operations stabilize and
smooth out.

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Appendix 1: Tools reviewed and discussed
Document sharing
• Google Docs, https://www.google.com/documents
• Google Calendar, https://www.google.com/calendar
• 30 Boxes, http://30boxes.com/
• Remember the Milk, http://www.rememberthemilk.com/
• Toodledo, http://www.toodledo.com/
• Doodle, https://www.doodle.com/
• Basecamp, http:// basecamphq.com
• Open Atrium: http:// openatrium.com/
• ManyMoon, http://www.manymoon.com/
• PBWorks / PBWiki, http://pbworks.com/
• High Rise, http://highrisehq.com/
• G Talk, http://www.google.com/talk
• Yammer, http://www.yammer.com/
• Skitch, http://skitch.com/

• Dropbox, http://www.dropbox.com/
• Google Groups, http://groups.google.com/
• Freeconference, http://www.freeconference.com/
• Toggl, http://www.toggl.com

Document Sharing

Google Docs
https://www.google.com/documents

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This application is for sharing documents, rather than multiple folders or files. To
use it, the user must have a Google account. Documents are easily shared,
either by creating a document or uploading one from the user’s computer and
then inviting others to share the document. Google Docs then sends the intended
sharer an email message, granting access to the document, and automatically
placing it in the recipient’s Google Documents area. Everyone who has access to
the document can then view it, and, with permission from the person who created
the document, edit it. The edits then take effect for all users. This is one of the
major advantages over emails: there is one version of the document that all the
users see. Users report that this is an excellent way to share staff documents,
but that it could do a little bit more.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: Sure, I recommend this, and I do use it. I
think it’s good for anyone who wants to share a document with others and not
have several different versions of the document floating around. It’s also good
when someone emails me a document in a weird format and my computer
doesn’t want to open it by traditional means. I simply forward it to one of my
Gmail accounts and open it with Google Docs. While easy enough to use, the
documents themselves can be a bit unwieldy, particularly the spreadsheets,
which become poky, and don’t always respond right away, or sometimes as
expected. It’s also not super-pretty, and that doesn’t bother me, but more visual
folks might prefer something slicker-looking.

Quality /
functionality
Product / group User User- Cost Mobile
usability / ratings friendly version?
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Accessible
by
Smartphone,

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but very
difficult to
Google A- / B+ A- A- Free use the
Docs documents

Calendar Sharing

Google Calendar
https://www.google.com/calendar

Google Calendar offers a very simple, instinctive way to keep one’s calendar,
and to share it with others. Like Google Documents, the user makes up his or her
own calendar, and can then share it with others, who can then either view it or
view and edit it, depending on the author’s settings. This allows all group
members to be able to view and/or import each other’s calendars—an easy way
to determine group availability. A user can also have multiple calendars (project,
business, personal, and the like) so as to organize his or her time however it
works best. Each event, appointment or task can also be entered largely visually,
with as little or as much detail as the user wishes. Changes to events are
accomplished by clicking on the event.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I do use Google Calendar, and I like it a
lot. For anyone who has ever used a PDA or any sort of electronic calendaring
function, it’s totally instinctive. For those who haven’t, it’s quite easy to figure out.
I think this is a great thing for first-timers to use. Anyone who gets that all the
settings (sharing, having reminders sent to one’s phone or email accounts, etc.)
live under the “Settings” tab is good to go and can customize everything.

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30 Boxes
http://30boxes.com/

30 Boxes offers multiple features for the individual in addition to calendar
sharing, such as integration with Facebook, local weather reports, and birthday
reminders. It also keeps track of tasks. Like Google Calendar, multiple calendars
are easily shared, and any desired settings easily customized. Unlike Google
Calendar, it also has a social component. Users may add “buddies” who can then
share the calendars.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I probably wouldn’t use this. It seems too
social or fluffy or something. It’s more comprehensive and more attractive than
Google Calendar, but I’m a little put off by the calendar “buddy” stuff and the
linking with MySpace. It seems more social than professional, and if I want my
friends to know what I’m doing and where I am, I have multiple avenues of doing
that where I don’t inundate them with a bunch of information they don’t really
want. I suppose people who want to feel really warm and fuzzy about
communicating with coworkers and sharing calendars would enjoy it, though.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Yes—

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Google A A A- Free Google will
Calendar even text or
email
reminders to
your phone.

30 Boxes A- A- A Free Yes

Scheduling and Tasks

Remember the Milk
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Remember the Milk tracks tasks online and through email, also integrating with
various devices and social media. Its functionality includes mapping, for those
who need to see where their tasks are located. Tasks can also be added and
managed by voice using Jott.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I would probably use this if I had never
seen Toodledo. However, I think some people would still be much more attracted
to Remember the Milk. It comes off as being very user-friendly, with its cute cow
logo. Its functionality and integration are certainly decent, even if it doesn’t do
everything Toodledo does. For those who don’t want tons of extra features and
do want a friendly and personable feel, Remember the Milk might be the way to
go.

Toodledo
http://www.toodledo.com/

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Toodledo’s primary job is to manage large, complex, and shared to-do lists. It
offers important basic features, such as goals, repeating tasks, and prioritizing,
and integrates with most online functions, from email to Twitter to RSS feeds.
Enhanced versions also offer subtasks and full encryption, among other features.
All in all, this tool gives the user endless options for customizing, prioritizing,
scheduling, and keeping track of tasks.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I would certainly give this one a whirl. It
seems to have a far greater functionality than other task and scheduling tools (it
has a table on its website that compares functions with similar popular products).
The main reason why I would try it is that my Smartphone’s own task tracking is
pretty lame. It would be good to have a better one on there, and Toodledo’s
functionality seems just incredible. Plus, I’m very task-y, and the way it handles
multiple task prioritization gives me goosebumps. First-timers might be
somewhat intimidated by all the stuff Toodledo does, but it can also be started
and used relatively simply.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Free or $25
per year,
Remember depending
the Milk on desired
A- A- A- Yes
features

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Free to
$29.95 per
year,
depending
Toodledo A- A- A- / B+ Yes
on desired
features

Scheduling Meetings

Doodle
https://www.doodle.com/

Doodle finds dates and times when everyone in the group can get together.
Potential participants can draw on their Google Calendars or simply respond to
queries about group availability. Group members send a “polls” to the other
members, asking which of multiple times, displayed in calendar format, might
work. They can then respond, and a single date and time can be selected, and
added to each member’s calendar.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I might use this if I worked with a lot of
other people with whom I needed to have regular face-to-face meetings. For
people who do need something like that, this tool just seems to do one thing,
although it does seem to do it well.

Quality /
functionality
User User- Mobile

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Product / group ratings friendly Cost version?
usability / (esp. for
1st-timers)
app.
interface

Free to
$480 per
year,
depending
Doodle A- / B+ A A- Yes
on desired
functionality

Project Management / Workspace

ManyMoon
http://www.manymoon.com/

ManyMoon allows the user to set up projects, and walks him or her through the
process. The user would create the project, then invite others to it, and then
assign tasks. A user can also designate group project milestones and issue
group bulletins. ManyMoon integrates easily with Google, allowing users access
to documents, email, and other features—essentially making a project
management space out of pre-existing Google accounts and applications.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: Eh, I probably wouldn’t use it. The visual
task-sharing aspect is nice, but it seems to be the main thing that ManyMoon
itself does, and it doesn’t look all that flexible to me. Someone who has a lot of

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group things already set up with Google, or who is really invested in using
Google products, might find this an easy transition, however.

PBWorks / PBWiki
http://pbworks.com/

Collaboration features of PBWorks include shared online workspaces, easy
adding of collaborators, collaborative page, document, and deadline editing, a
network dashboard, and a complete history that is both reversible and easily
audited. Users also have instant access to each other through IM, voice, and talk
functions, and the workspace is extremely customizable. PBWorks walks the
user through speedy signup and setup from the website. Business, educational,
and personal versions are available.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I wouldn’t use the paid version of this
unless someone else was footing the bill. People who might use the paid version
might be those who would want to customize absolutely everything, share their
professional-looking virtual workspaces with clients, or who would want to be
absolutely certain to have a flashy environment with support. People with
significant budgets who want a lot of hand-holding support, who are really picky
about what the virtual workspace looks like, or who just know what they want and
want to be able to customize it just as they see it, might be really pleased with
the paid version of PBWorks—for everyone else, stick with the free.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

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House of Local
Notifications
through
ManyMoon A A- A- Free partnered
applications

Doesn’t look
like it—
except by
PBWorks / A A A- $20 per Smartphone
over the
PBWiki user, per
month Internet, of
course

Contact Management

High Rise
http://highrisehq.com/

From the makers of Basecamp and Backpack, High Rise keeps track of contacts,
conversation notes and details with each contact, as well as tasks, leads and
proposals, communication between group members, customization and more, all
visible from a comprehensive dashboard. Users and contacts are easily added
and integrated, and High Rise also integrates with multiple third-party tools.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I would not use this. It’s expensive and I
don’t need anywhere near this many features. I think it’s somewhat intimidating
for the brand-new user, just because it does so much. It would probably be ideal
for sales or fundraising organizations, or those with a lot of clients to keep track
of and integrate with other systems (customer service and accounting, for

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House of Local
example). Anyone who wants their contact tracking to be really slick would love
it.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

$29 - $149
per month,
depending
on desired
High Rise A A B+ / A- Yes
features
and
number of
users

Live Talk and Real-Time Group Communication

GoogleTalk. Aka G-talk
http://www.google.com

Google Talk is accessed from one’s Gmail account. On the left side of the screen
is a column of folders and labels, and beneath that, the talk area. The user can
click on one of his or her contacts, or invite another Gmail user, and a small talk
window immediately opens. The users can then type messages to one another in
real time. In a business setting, Google Talk offers a way to ask a quick question
and get a quick answer, or have real-time remote exchanges—in much less time
than it would take to email back and forth. Additionally, a user can indicate
whether or not he or she is free to talk by setting his or her status. This alerts
other users as to whether the user is busy, available to talk, away from his or her
computer, or some other customized message.

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House of Local

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I do use this, and I like it fine. I’m not that
big a fan of online chatting—I find it distracting from whatever I’m doing—so one
thing that I really like about G Talk is the ability to announce that I’m not available
to talk. I like that I can just duck in and ask a quick question, though, and that it’s
more interactive and faster than emails. I think it’s pretty easy to figure out. Gmail
is very obvious about what to do. I’ve also never known G Talk to freak out or
crash or anything—it seems very robust.

Yammer
http://www.yammer.com/

Yammer is essentially a professionalized, internal version of Twitter. Users are
walked through a quick setup or joining process, and may then begin posting
messages to the rest of the group. Rather than Twitter’s “What’s happening?,”
users answer the question, “What are you working on?” A single company has its
own network, potentially with multiple groups. Any posted remarks or questions
are immediately visible to anyone in the group. Members may then respond in
real time, by posting, or by direct message. Additionally, new groups can be
created and joined at any time—including with clients or suppliers.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says : I probably wouldn’t use this, but I mostly
work alone or with only one or two other people.. This seems like an invitation to
micro-management to me. However, I suppose people who need to
communicate instantly with a large group might find it useful, and entirely
instinctive if they’re familiar with Twitter.

Houseoflocal.org #%"

House of Local
Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

One might be
able to
access this
by
Smartphone,
G Talk A A A Free but texting or
calling the
other person
gets the job
done much
more simply.

Yammer A A- A- Free Yes

Quick Screenshot Sharing

Skitch
http://skitch.com/

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House of Local
Skitch allows users to take screenshots and share them instantly with others, by
email, Twitter, online, or any other methods of sharing. Users can also add any
sort of effects to the image, from cropping to freehand image drawing. The user
would download the Skitch software from the website, and then be able to start
taking and customizing screenshots right away. Skitch brings up a movable
window, which the user can position over any portion of the screen he or she
wishes to “snap,” and get the image. Once Skitch has the image, the user can
customize and share it quickly.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I do use this, and I think it’s pretty
powerful. I haven’t used anywhere near all the features yet, but I have managed
to get what I needed every time. For example, I recently used it for capturing an
image of a guy who, despite being something of a high-tech bigwig, was a total
ghost. He had no online pictures of himself, even in social media, and the only
image of him on the entire Internet was literally for nine seconds in a training
video. Skitch allowed me to snatch a still shot from the video and get the picture
the client needed. However, there is nothing remotely instinctive about it. As
relaxed as I am around new applications and technology, and as much
experience as I’ve had using desktop publishing and layout software, it was still
utterly baffling. It might make a first-timer cry.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Can receive
images, but
creating
them online
Skitch A- A C- Free
with a
Smartphone
would be
rather
unwieldy.

Quick File Sharing

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House of Local
Dropbox
http://www.dropbox.com/

Dropbox enables sharing of multiple files and documents, and quick online
backup of any files or documents. Like Google Docs, a user can share
documents, which update in real time as any of the users make changes to them.
Unlike Google Docs, users can share large volumes of files, documents and
folders. The Dropbox icon sits on the user’s desktop, and alerts the user anytime
changes are made to the files, documents, and folders, or when new items
arrive. The user can download and customize Dropbox online, and Dropbox puts
an icon on the desktop automatically. From there, it works much like any other
drag-and-drop desktop folder, except for the notifications, and the fact that
putting items into shared folders gives other users instant access to them.

Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I do use this, and I think it’s good. I don’t
know of anything that’s as powerful or reliable as Dropbox for sharing large
volumes of stuff. Maybe 10 years ago or so, I contracted with an academic
journal and had to FTP everything. I would have killed for an application like
Dropbox then. It’s very stable and reliable, and because it works like any other
desktop folder system (with which first-time users would likely be quite familiar), it
should be pretty easy to get started.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

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House of Local
Yes—
customized
Dropbox A A A- Free for all
manner of
devices

Group Emails

Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/

Google Groups allows users to join existing groups based on areas of interest, or
to create their own for particular projects. They can then share files, photos,
profile information, and discussions. Discussions can take place online or by
email, and group members can also create web pages to share with the group. In
this way, they can both generate information within the group, and choose
different ways to display it in various categorized or aggregated ways. If only
website creation is desired, users can use Google Sites in addition to, or instead
of, Google Groups.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I haven’t used this, but I would if I was
asked to, and I wouldn’t be concerned about getting comfortable with it. First-
timers would likely have a pretty easy time with the discussion and sharing
functions, and might need to get a little more secure to create sharable web
pages. It looks pretty good for groups that want to collaborate more as a group
than just share files—especially if they’re already using some Google
applications.

Houseoflocal.org #)"

House of Local

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Google Yes—can be
Groups customized
A- A B+ / A- Free through
Google

Conference Calls

Freeconference
http://www.freeconference.com/

Many group meeting and conference call tools are expensive, and leave users
cold. Freeconference, however, is inexpensive, integrates with Outlook (and will
update all parties automatically, if desired), and can also be recorded.
Freeconference can be used by individuals, businesses, and other organizations,
and offers free scheduling of conference calls as well as free on-demand ones
without pre-scheduling. It also offers multiple convenient features for frequent
users, such as touch-tone wallet cards and saved profiles. Multiple resources are
available to walk first-timers through their first conference calls, regardless of
previous experience.

Houseoflocal.org #*"

House of Local
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I think anyone who needs to have good-
quality conference calls without shelling out outrageous money for it would
appreciate this, and it seems to be what the slogan claims: “Simple, convenient,
reliable.”

Quality /
functionality
(esp.
app. for 1st-
interface timers)

Free to 10
cents a
minute,
depending
Freeconference.com A- A A- / B+ No
on desired
features

Time Tracking / Time Management

Toggl
http://www.toggl.com

Toggl tracks the time the user spends on any given task or project. It integrates
easily with mobile devices, networks, and popular applications. The time-tracking
function can be embedded into web pages, used as a popup on the desktop, or
used with applications such as Gmail and Netvibes. Users create tasks, click on
them, and the time is instantly tracked. Switching tasks or stopping the time

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House of Local
counter also require a click. Members can be added, and with paid memberships
(beginning at $5 per month), users can track earnings and send reports to
clients. Users can also add RSS feeds, to which those interested in their
progress or output can then subscribe.
Project manager Meg Bertoni says: I haven’t used this before, but I’m seriously
considering using it now. It looks like a really good thing for anyone who does
multiple projects at once, bills by the hour, or just wants to know where their time
goes.

Quality /
functionality
(esp. for
app. 1st-timers)
interface

Free to $79
per month,
depending
on desired
features
Toggl A A A- and Yes
number of
users

Appendix 2: Comments from respondents &
colleagues
In preparing this paper, we queried a range of web media professionals, tech
developers, and community foundation program directors and project managers about
remote tools they used. The results are so interesting, we’re making them available here
as a second appendix.

Comments from respondents on tools they use

Community foundation staffer: We are not using any of the tools mentioned. Our
group, which numbers 8 (give or take) talked about using Basecamp or something
similar early on. The group decided not to utilize any such tools. I personally wish that
we had. The argument given at the time, (assuming that I am remembering correctly)
was that we would have to keep checking back to Basecamp, which would take longer
than simply receiving an email. We are using a free conference calling system; at any
one time, each of us is in a separate location. This has been very valuable.

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House of Local
Community foundation staffer: Doodle has been a good resource for scheduling
working groups. One thing that could be useful in this tool is a location preference for
meetings too, (an issue that has come up a couple times as multiple orgs could host),
but that might just be a feature of the paid version I don’t know about. To be fair, the
working groups I’ve used this for tend to be more tech savvy, and I’ve received a few
emails from individuals who haven’t used it before asking me to check if they entered in
their preferences correctly.

Community foundation staffer: We’ve tried using Basecamp and Google docs for
project management and document sharing, but both have been rather limited in their
usefulness. This is more on the parts of the users/people involved, who probably don’t
like the extra step of having to login and create/remember another password before
being able to use the tool. I tried using Basecamp for 3 months, and although I liked its
interface and capabilities, no one else took advantage of it from the Steering Committee
so I cancelled our subscription. Google docs we’ve used for quite some time, but only in
sharing a working spreadsheet for fundraising, and only 2 out of 5 people in the group
use it. Again, I think the biggest stumbling block is the password/extra step to use the
tool that dissuades most people from taking advantage of these resources.

Ryan Sholin, future of news guy:

• Yammer: An internal Twitter, complete with an iPhone app, IM integration, and a
desktop app. (free)

• Skitch: Quick sharing of screenshots. (free)

• Dropbox: Quick sharing of files. (freemium)

• CapsuleCRM: It's supposed to be CRM, but could easily be used as a way to
track (and share with other managers) your conversations with pieces of that
large team. (something like 12 bucks a month for a few users; more users, higher
cost)

Amanda Hickman, DocumentCloud:

• We're getting increasing mileage out of DropBox which is most notably *not* web
based in the traditional http sense. GoogleDocs' handling of spreadsheet
functions and notes in documents is pretty sub par. We're sharing docs across
OOo / MS Office with no problem via DropBox.

• We're also using Unfuddled for ticket tracking. I am increasingly a fan. We meet
over gotomeeting, which I don't love.

Colleen Nagle, Tech Soup Global product manager

• Trac: (developer collaboration environment with many features),
http://trac.edgewall.org/

• BugZilla: (bug tracking software) http://www.bugzilla.org

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House of Local
• Subversion: (version control for documentation and code),
http://subversion.apache.org/

• Leverage CMS as Intranet, **drupal or wordpress (forums, groups, key forms,
information etc..)

• Usually run an #IRC channel, http://irchelp.org/irchelp/changuide.html

• Skype: key for meetings, developers can work together implementing solution
(confirming requirements, debugging, etc..), http://skype.com

• Lighthouse: (issue tracker that integrates with bug tracking software),
http://lighthouseapp.com/

Greg Linch, Publish 2:

• Publish2 primarily uses Rally for managing development and other projects,
tasks, etc. and Trac for tracking commits to our code repository.

• Also, a couple of years ago, I played around a little with ProjectPier, an open-
source Basecamp clone.

Judith Meskill, Change.org

• i'd add box.net, expensify and pivotal tracker to your growing list of useful startup
team apps.

Michael Stoll, SF Public Press:

• We tried Basecamp late last year for the Bay Bridge project. We found that it was
not very well adopted by the members of the group (about 15 total) and we
ended up wasting $50 a month on what ended up filtering out to be a
collaboration only among four or five people. I found that I couldn't enforce the
use of it and we ended up canceling it.

• We also tried Document Cloud for the Treasure Island package for the
newspaper. It was in beta at the time, and still might be. That was somewhat
more successful because we had an evangelist on the team, and because its use
was relatively simple to grasp. But we didn't use all the functionality that it
offered, such as open publication of the source material we uploaded. That
system was used by about eight or nine people, but only three or four regularly.

• We use Doodle for meeting scheduling two to four times a month.

• Google Docs is our workhorse. We use it for everything — perhaps too much.
We have our staff contact lists there as spreadsheets. On the same spreadsheet
we also keep track of our story ideas — about 200 stories at a time. There are
about 15 people with editing access to that document, and another 20 with view
access.

Houseoflocal.org $$"

House of Local
• For file sharing we use Dropbox, the free 2 GB account. That's how we handled
editing of text, photos and InDesign layouts distributed among about 20 people
for the print edition. We're also using it more and more for editing stories for the
website.

maiki interi, cogmotive.com, developer (built Oakland Local, among others):

• DokuWiki is often used by developers, it is a slim wiki that focuses on
documentation. Nearly every OSS project has something similar to it, and I
personally maintain two instances.

• StatusNet is microblog webapp. It is very useful for rolling out your own Twitter-
type site (an offensive way to describe it). cog.im is our StatusNet site. Great for
reference and small conversation that is non-disruptive.

-

Sarah Dopp, independent consultant:

My projects are done with smaller groups, but here's what I use:

• PBWiki Business Edition - for documentation and some project management

• Select auto-forwarding to an extra gmail account for storing project status emails
in team view (using the convention, address+TeamMemberName@gmail.com to
filter special emails to a folder that gets a team member's attention.

• Remember the Milk

• Gchat

Andrew Nachison, ifocus

Here are a few of the tools I use - I'm sure they're all on your list already:

• Project Management: Basecamp

• Notes: Evernote

• Shared docs: Google Docs

• Calls: Skype, Free Conference Calls

• Meeting Schedules: Timebridge (tried - it worked well, but I don't really use it
much - back and forth via email is the norm)

• Contact/Schedule/Mail/Data sync: Me.com (Apple's online service)

• Mail: Gmail

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House of Local
• Calendar: 30boxes is great/ also use Google + both in combo/sync with Apple
Mail

• Shared Presentations: Scribd

• Event signups/tracking: eventbrite

• Social bookmarks: Diigo--Diigo rocks for saving/sharing bookmarks within
groups.

Share your contributions!
Comments and more resources are welcomed. Please share in the comments and feel
free to add.

If you would like to see additional white papers on other sets of tools, let us know—email
mernit@gmail.com

Houseoflocal.org $&"

House of Local

Author bios & contact info
Susan Mernit is editor & published of Oakland Local (oaklandlocal.com) a
news & community hub for Oakland, CA focused on social justice issues
that combines reported stories with community media & diverse voices
and training to bridge the digital divide. A former VP at AOL & Netscape,
& a former Yahoo Senior Director, Mernit is also a circuit rider for The
Knight Community Information Challenge and a frequent facilitator for
The Knight Digital Media Center at The Annenberg School of Journalism,
USC. She is also a consultant focused on local media, community
engagement & the future of news.

She is available for consulting projects, especially those focused on the
future of news, local civic engagement and community outreach. Contact
her at mernit@gmail.com. Follow her on twitter at @susanmernit

Meg Bertoni is House of Local’s project/research manager, and calendar
editor for Oakland Local. Meg has been a writing, editorial, and research
mercenary for over two decades. (Have laptop, will travel.) She holds a
Ph.D. in international relations, and when not absorbed with Oakland’s
stories and events, mostly teaches online graduate-level global affairs
and writing courses. She has been obsessed with justice and strategy for
as long as she can remember. Her personal blog is at megspohn.com.

Houseoflocal.org $'"

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