Online whiteboards have been around since 1998 when Groupboard.com launched the first collaborative web-based whiteboard. With the increasing popularity of online tutoring and other forms of internet collaboration, internet whiteboards have become increasingly important tools for distance learning, collaborative designing, and online meetings. In recent years, there has been a profusion of new online white boarding services, so we decided to see how Groupboard stacks up against the competition.

Features
Maximum Users	5	6	Unlimited	Unlimited	1
Embeddable
Real-time
Requires no plugins
Works on iPhone
Upload pictures
Resizable whiteboard
Text chat
Message board
Unlimited usage
Works on all major web browsers
Save function
Moderator tools
Undo
Advert free
Voice conferencing
Editable objects
Self-hosted option

A dollar sign indicates that the feature is available in the paid version of the product.

With the growing popularity of these types of web tools, it’s likely we will see more and more features being added to make communication and collaboration easier. Most of the paid versions begin as low as about $10/month.

This article was contributed by David Jameson. You can follow GroupBoard on Twitter @GroupBoard.

With the growing popularity of Google Docs and Openoffice.org as free alternatives to the Office Suite, Microsoft has finally responded with it’s own Office Web Apps on Skydrive, launched this past Monday. This release comes one week before Microsoft Office 2010 is launched on the market for consumers (it’s been on sales for businesses for about 2 months). Office Web Apps includes versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, & OneNote. Let’s take a look at how Office Web apps shapes up against its competition:

The web layouts for Word, Excel, & PowerPoint are basically a trimmed down version of the corresponding desktop program. They don’t have quite as many features as the Google Docs applications, but enough to allow users to make basic edits and create basic documents. One of its main selling points is that your uploaded files will look exactly the same online as it would on your computer since it is essentially the same program. This will help reign in consumers who, like me, just couldn’t get into Google Docs (I guess I can say Office Web Apps was MY idea!) since it looks and works exactly like the desktop version.

For all you early adopters, if you plan on upgrading to MS Office 2010 next week, you will be able to upload your files to Skydrive with the click of a button. The release of Office 2010 is probably one of the reasons for the trimmed down features. Microsoft doesn’t want, as Google Enterprise president, Dave Girouard recently suggested, people to stop buying and upgrading their Office suites. Office Web Apps is being marketing this as an extension to its popular (and profitable) desktop software.

Office Web Apps also has an online version of its OneNote software. For those who have not used it, it is a virtual notebook you can use anywhere from in the classroom to business meetings. As a student, OneNote has been invaluable for all my daily needs from creating to-do lists to doodling around my notes while the professor lectures. It integrates audio, video, text, pen, & more all into one space.

Unfortunately, the web-based version of OneNote is so lacking in almost every aspect, they may as well have not even included it. This is disappointing because Office Web Apps is also missing the Drawing and Forms tools that Google Docs has. OneNote could have been a great differentiator and a way to excel in an area that Google has not touched on yet. Instead, it is just a glorified version of Word with some cool little icons.

All in all, Microsoft Office Web Apps has made a strong entrance into the Office Suite cloud. While it is behind Google Docs and will need to work a little harder to get users interested, it is a great first start.

The following information has been provided by Michaela Mora of Relevant Insights, a Texas based Market Research firm. If you have insights into the web’s truly free resources for business – please share them with us!

- freesourcing.org

This recession has been hard on many market research departments across industries and company sizes. Internal market research teams have become smaller and the expectation of doing more research with less resources has increased significantly. As much research keeps moving to online, there is a constant quest for a free survey tool that can do it all.

Unfortunately, most free online survey tools are limited versions of their paid counterparts and are offered so that users can test them. However, not all free versions are equal. Some give you more than others and you get the chance to really experience how useful the tool can be. This is the case of SurveyGizmo vs. SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang, which are the most popular survey tools today.

When I discovered SurveyGizmo a couple of years ago, I was surprised to see a long list of features I wanted in an online survey tool at a very low cost. Even at the lowest subscription plan ($19/mo), SurveyGizmo offers many more features than SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang.

Since clients keep asking what online survey tools they can use for free, I decided to share the comparison we made at Relevant Insights of the free versions of these three online survey tools on a set of features that would allow an user to create simple and relatively more advanced surveys.

You may still find some key features missing needed to deploy a survey with certain level of complexity or in a more convenient way, so if you have some cash to spare, I suggest you upgrade to one of SurveyGizmo paid subscription plans, which don’t require a long-term contract, but give you access to even more advanced features at a lower price than SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang. A professional plan ($49/mo) it is usually enough to cover all your needs from simple to more advanced surveys.

For more details on this free online survey review check the original article Three Popular Online Survey Tools – What They Give For Free.

This video tutorial is so great, we just had to share it. It’s a basic 101 education for new comers to Twitter, but also makes a nice refresher/reinforcement for the experienced folks who may have found themselves “lost in the noise”. If you fall into the beginner category, I’ll also recommend checking out business.twitter.com/twitter101 for a nice step-by-step 101 lesson. Enjoy!

oDesk let’s you build a remote workforce from anywhere around the world. You can post jobs, find candidates, and interview for free. oDesk also focuses in on building a remote workforce, so they’ve created tools for payment, workflow, collaboration AND provided the functionality that let’s you track and pay only for progress.

Check out the overview:

The latest update on using Skype over 3G…

I would like to begin this post by first thanking the people behind Evernote. I know I’m not alone in saying that a note taking and organizing solution of this caliber is right on time and sincerely appreciated. There is nothing half-baked about Evernote. This product is well thought out, well developed, and already has many of the features you wish it would have. Thank you Evernote!

Here is why you should check out, and probably start using Evernote:

1. Evernote will help you capture everything – mobile photos & videos, text notes, screen shots; almost anything.

2. Evernote will help you organize everything – automatically, or do it yourself.

3. Evernote has awesome features – Tweet to note, Robust iPhone Application, and more.

4. Evernote is Free – The free version lets you store up to 40MB of notes per month. If that’s not enough to keep you organized, their premium subscription is extremely reasonable ($5/month $45/year).

On the Evernote Website you’ll also find a wide range of video tutorials they’ve created to introduce and educated on new features. For those of you with iPhones or iPod touches, we’re going to leave you with this short tutorial of their recently updated iPhone app:

Thanks for checking out Evernote and the Freesourcing.org Blog!

Until next time,

– Patrick

Every business day our Twitter handle @freesourcing publishes a “Freesource of the day”. Today’s Freesource is MailChimp – MailChimp is the most impressive email marketing tool I’ve seen – “period”. Aside from MailChimp being a great submission, what I found especially exciting, was the man who submitted it: Skip Blankley, the Owner and Founder of Groovemuse Atlanta.

Groovemuse is an Atlanta-based organization led by Musicians and Artists, for Musicians and Artists. Skip and his crew focus on creating and growing opportunities for talented artists in the Atlanta area through fundraisers, recording, web design, management, promotions, and legal assistance. And as you may have guessed, Skip is now using MailChimp to boost his efforts.

A big part of Groovemuse’s success has been achieved through their community of artists, vendors, and fans. Skip mentioned that “keeping in touch with so many is a challenge, and email blasting is never enough”. Skip’s excited about the switch to MailChimp and because of useful features like analytics, custom design, add-ons, and ROI measurement, but the main item that sparked his interest was a recent integration with Eventbrite – a free event listing and management tool. Skip said “the combination is exactly what Groovemuse needs”.

Freesourcing.org would like to extend a special thanks to Skip for submitting MailChimp and especially for taking the time to speak with us this morning. On a side note, Skip declined to say which email marketing provider he was using before, but based on his endorsement, I don’t think Groovemuse will be going back.

Short tutorial showing EXACTLY how powerful MailChimp is:

In part one we talked about Twitter Lists being largely a organizational tool, and they are. This post highlights the rich experience and benefits I’ve had by creating just two Twitter Lists. Here’s my entry/early strategy and experience for Twitter Lists:

List 1) Met at Events & Networking
This list is totally private and consists of all the contacts I make at conferences like the recent BlogWell in Atlanta. Now, I do follow the people that I sincerely connected with, but I also put them under that list. This gives me the chance to keep tabs on every hand-shaken and build on the relationship if appropriate – without cluttering up my homepage.

List 2) The Freesources on Freesourcing.org
This list it totally public. Before Twitter lists ALL of these 70+ Tweeps were under my regular followed stream so I could try and keep tabs on them – it wasn’t very effective. Since I’m only in contact with a handful of our Freesources, I’ve unfollowed most of them and placed ALL of them under @freesourcing.org/freesources – this has cleared up my homepage for my mainstream tweeps, lets me check up on Freesources easy as a click, and build a relationship when appropriate.

Now that I’m in a flow with Twitter Lists, my Tweeting experience is clearer and massively more time efficient. Next up for me: researching the lists of others, and maybe creating another list…who knows! If you’re having a great experience with Lists, please share in the comments or with us on Twitter @freesourcing.

In our first blog post we mentioned that “This directory helps businesses and individuals find the best tools to drive performance, reduce costs, increase sales, tighten customer relationships -and the list goes on.” We stand behind that statement and LogMeIn is the perfect example why. LogMeIn provides an enterprise solution that will allow your IT manager to monitor and manage your entire companies IT needs right from their desk – This means no more wasted time and effort moving desk-to-desk to install updates, perform maintenance, or even to take a look – that’s a massive efficiency. If this is something you’re company can benefit from, and I think it is, I highly recommend watching this short tutorial:

Now this enterprise version of LogMeIn isn’t free, but that’s OK. LogMeIn still qualifies as a Freesource because of their free version, and also qualifies even more as a great resource for business. You’ll find their free version for individuals listed on the Freesourcing.org Directory. If you’re considering using this as an enterprise solution, have your IT Manager or IT Team start with the Freesource, and see what they think!