Looking for a simple tool to help you at your next team wide planning session? Why not have a look at…
Ask 2, 3, or 4 or more members to bring their laptops along to the planning session. The first guy sets up the “TypeWithMe” page, then sends the link to the others. Before you know it, you’ll all be typing together on the same webpage — and all for free! When you’re done, import or print the page, then produce as many others as you want.
I’ve used this tool for months, and recommend it, with a warning: In recent months the site has unexpectedly gone off line – sometimes before critical meetings for which I’ve planned to use typewith.me. So always keep a copy locally (copy and paste in an email message to yourself) just in case.
Secondly, typewith.me in recent months has voided existing typewith.me pages – erased them, in bulk. There is no guarantee your page(s) will be active. Therefore, use typewith.me, but after a collaborative meeting BE SURE TO EXPORT A COPY for your records.
Typewith.me is simply an independent group using the open source of the old etherpad.com which google bought and tried to rework into Google Wave (which was unsuccessful).
By the way, you can install etherpad software on your server to create and host your own version of typewith.me (use your own domain); get the code at http://code.google.com/p/etherpad/ or see the landing page at http://etherpad.com/ for more information and for other pages hosting private versions of the etherpad service.
I’ve always preferred the etherpad approach, so I’ve continued to use typewith.me despite the limitations.
Great cautions, Dave. THanks for taking time to help us make the tool better.
Doug
Thanks for those valuable insights, Dave. Great to know it is available for hosting within our own domains as it does have some useful features.
Another product I really appreciate is Mindjet’s Catalyst. It is NOT free, but if you appreciate the value of collaborative mind mapping, it’s a great tool. You can find out more, and get a free trial, here:
https://catalyst.mindjet.com
My impression is that whatever you type there is available for the world to see (if they find the link), is that right?
Might be worth using initials if the info is “secure” in some way, huh?
Google Docs does the same thing with many more features. The document autosaves, can be accessed at any time, collaboration features are fantastic with up to 50 live editing slots, comments, revision history, etc. Google Docs is vastly superior to typewith.me.