The Wiggio Online Collaboration Tool
Having just launched into beta, Wiggio.com is an online collaboration tool and is the brainchild of Dana Lampert and Lance Polivy. It was funded through a business school project at Cornell University and is primarily marketed towards college students and staff, though it has uses for many, many others.
Lampert and Polivy say they were fed up with the current offerings in online collaboration and with how complicated these programs are to operate and wanted to make something simple, useful, and fast. The result is Wiggio, whose every feature is simple and easy and, obviously, useful. Since the downfall of many collaboration efforts is the learning curve of the collaboration medium (tele-, web-conferencing, etc.) and the lack of interactivity they often have, Wiggio moves to change that.
In addition to the usual collaboration tools like conferencing, message boards, calendars, etc. Wiggio also offers text message blasting and email polls. This means you can contact your group off the Web using cell phone texts or use email to conduct polls and set up meetings without everyone having to log into the site.
From a usability standpoint, the site is awesome, but for the tech savvy who want ultra-power, it leaves a lot to be desired. Usually, though, groups are made up of a mix of the technically savvy and the technically challenged, so aiming towards the less astute for tools like this often means that everyone in the group will use it, rather than ignoring it, circumventing it, or questioning its validity.
While the site’s design could use some work, the site itself (and it’s usefulness) are top-notch and definitely worth checking out if you’re in need of a simple, free, online collaboration tool.
