A Slightly Different Take on Online Collaboration Tools. . . .

One of the things that was always difficult with the online faculty lounge and the D2L community concepts was that they, and similar collaboration attempts, added a layer of complication to the already complicated online collaboration attempts. In this YouTube video about a tool called SimplyBox (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISq5UdWr4Rs&feature=player_embedded), we see a tool that, instead of requiring us to go to a new tool to see conversations around a topic, allows us to remain in the current tool and see what might have been going on in a project or discussion. I'm not necessarily recommending this particular tool, because beyond what I see in this video I have no idea what this tool can actually do. It does seem, though, that the idea behind this tool goes a long way toward simplifying online collaboration by embedding the collaboration tool as opposed to complicating it by adding another application that we have to visit in order to work together.