Learning Technologies & Solutions SP15: Collaborative online software (WEB 2.0)

Collaborative online software (WEB 2.0)

The sharing, processing and management of files, documents and other data types among several users and/or systems is implemented by theCollaboration software. This type of software allows two or more remote users to jointly work on a task or project.Collaboration software is also known as collaborative software, online collaboration software and groupware.Collaboration software is primarily designed to enhance productivity within a group of individuals and, more importantly, within organizations. This is achieved through the combined tasks processing and management capabilities provided by this type of program.With collaborative software, users each create a workspace and add data and/or workflows to it. The created workspace can be acclaimed and accessed by all other users, and their location is not necessary, and can be given permission to access to the workspace by its primary user. The changes made to the data or files are synced across all users by the collaborative software, make sure that everyone has the most updated version of an ongoing project.In the case of cloud-enabled collaborative software, the same data is available and accessible directly from the software host site. Lotus Notes, Microsoft Groove and SharePoint are some examples of collaborative software.The use of collaborative software in the work space creates a collaborative working environment (CWE). A collaborative working environment supports people in both their individual and cooperative work thus emerging into a new class of professionals, e-professionals, who can work as one irrespective of their geographical location.The design intent of collaborative software (groupware) is to transform the way documents and rich media are shared in order to enable more effective team participation.Collaboration, with respect to information technology, seems to have several meanings. Some are permissible but others are so important that they lose any meaningful application. Knowing the differences in human interactions is necessary to ensure the appropriate technologies are employed to meet interaction needs. There are three important ways in which humans interact:

Conversational interaction

Transactional interaction

Collaborative interactions

A site which allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community is a web2.0.

Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of theWorld Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information online. Web 2.0 mainly points to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving applications to users. Other important functionality of Web 2.0 includes open communication with an attention on Web-based distinct users, and more open sharing of information. In the current daysWeb 2.0 has been widely used as a marketing term than a computer-science-based term. Blogs, wikis, and Web servicesare all seen as components of Web 2.0.Semantic web was previously named as a web2.0, but while the two are same, they do not share absolutely the unique meaning.The key features of Web 2.0 include: