Box: another collaboration tool

David Spinks wrote a post on Mashable outlining 10 social networking sites college students should try.  I found one of them to be very interesting, box.net, an online collaboration service. 

Get out of your inbox.
Box takes documents, discussions, and decisions out of your
Inbox and into a shared online workspace. Now everyone’s in the loop.

I’ve used other collaboration services like Google Docs and zoho, but box seems like a service that I would consider trying.  Unlike the others, box doesn’t actually store the files, it allows users to share links to documents, etc.  There are online workspaces for collaboration and discussion, file sharing of small and large files, and even a mobile version.  This could be a great way for small businesses or college students doing group work to efficiently share ideas, resources, and workload.  As a “professor in training” I could see myself incorporating a service like this into the course I’m teaching in the Fall.

Some other features of the services:

– File embedding via a widget

– Version History

– “Feed” for activity

– Various security options

Sparks points out that box would be great for student organizations.  It’s an easy way to manage files that require editing from multiple people.

My fraternity uses box.net to keep an organized database of our files that any member can access. You can invite collaborators to view folders, edit documents (similar to Word or Google Docs), hold discussions, and send messages.

I’ll give this a test drive and see if it’s something that I would consider using in the long run.

Source:  Mashable

(Take a look at the other 9 social networking sites that Sparks reviews.  Some we have talked about before, others are new to the scene.)