Webware

Online collaboration is one of the best uses of the Web, and project management is where it can really shine. I thought it would be worth taking a look at a product called OfficeZilla to see how well it stacks up against Basecamp and Teamwork, two established leaders in the online project management space. The results may surprise you.

Unlike Basecamp, OfficeZilla is free. That might suggest that it's underpowered when compared to the services that charge, but the differences are so minor you wouldn't find any reason not to use OfficeZilla. In fact, I think it's better-suited for small businesses with smaller projects than Basecamp, thanks to its simpler design.

The core of OfficeZilla revolves around modules. These are specific features of the service that you can custom tailor to match what you're using it for. When setting up your group, you'll be asked which ones you want included. They range from bible search (used primarily for bible study groups) to calendars and chat rooms.

Although OfficeZilla is free, the company charges for premium modules. So far, there are only a handful of them listed, like calendar filtering by groups, admin stats, and an enhanced user activity stream. They're pricey at $10 per month, and after reading about a few that are still being developed, I'm not convinced they're all that useful. I think Basecamp has it right and OfficeZilla should follow suit by charging a standard, basic fee for access to all its services each month.

OfficeZilla modules are useful for projects.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

After picking my modules, I started diving into OfficeZilla, adding a project, finding team members to perform tasks, and monitoring their progress. Adding a project couldn't be any simpler or more intuitive. From the project manager pane you can create a new project, give it a name, and input a description in just a few seconds.

Once created, you get a slew of options to start building out into a workflow. I started adding tasks to the project, and each new one brought me to a special task page which let me add notes and messages to other team members or upload files related to it. I would have liked to be able to track progress and see how far along my team was in completing that task--a feature that's conspicuously lacking from OfficeZilla--but the message platform is the next best thing. It allows other team members to annotate what they've done so far, which can keep you from having to send an e-mail or IM to check in.

One of OfficeZilla's most powerful features is its knowledge base module. It's a simple feature at first glance, but it can be an extremely functional tool if someone at a company spends time inputting relevant information.

But to do so, it's a bit more complicated than it needs to be. When I started creating categories in the Knowledge Base, I was forced to use the admin panel to add them instead of from the knowledge base itself. Once I had created a category from the admin panel, I could then go back to the Knowledge Base module and start adding tutorials and other information with the help of a full text editor, but it would have been nice to do it from within the tool's word processor. It lets you bold or italicize text, as well as increase or decrease font size and change alignment. It's basically like having Zoho Writer built into the module.

Usability
OfficeZilla is all about simplicity and trying to get you to do more with less. When uploading files or creating a to-do list, that's more than welcome, but for a company that has a detailed project with bundles of cash riding on it, that simplicity may prove to be a hindrance.

For example, OfficeZilla's Directory module which is a catalog of all project participant records organized by their name and job title, is useful if you want to quickly send a message to a team member, but it comes up short when you want to get an overview of your team's activity. There's no real-time data to know what they're working on, and you'll need to search through the various modules to see if they've left a message indicating the progress they've made.

"In Progress" is great, but it's not ideal.

(Credit: Don Reisinger/CNET Networks)

Worse, and perhaps the most frustrating feature of OfficeZilla, is its generic status update tags. When a task is created in the Project Manager, it's labeled "Not Started." Once the project manager or someone with access to modify the task starts working on it, they'll need to click on the current status pane and check a special box to note to others that work has begun. Until it's complete, the project status is listed as "In Progress." Once again, there's no indication given about how far along the project is, and simply saying "In Progress" doesn't help any project manager know, for sure, how close to complete it really is. Is it 20 minutes from completion or 20 days? "In Progress" says nothing.

Where OfficeZilla gets it right is in team communication. As I noted above, the site allows users to send messages in the Project Manager screen, but it also includes chat rooms, forums, and the option to send private messages to authorized employees. All of the options were superb, and I found that communicating with other team members couldn't have been easier. In fact, I'd say that OfficeZilla's communication platform is easily the best I've ever used in a collaboration service.

The final verdict

There are times when I'm in desperate need of a project management tool and using a service like Basecamp, one of the most powerful tools on the Web, is overkill. For those times, I would turn to OfficeZilla because it's simple to add a project and get down to the business of completing it.

But if I was running an organization that had a variety of projects that are not only time-sensitive, but complex and need to be monitored at every level, I wouldn't recommend OfficeZilla. The collaboration tool doesn't provide enough real-time information or tracking data to make it usable for mission critical projects.

With free DVDs handed out at the door, numerous camera crews shooting interviews, and--oh yes--"special guest" celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, last night's Twiistup party seemed proof that the Los Angeles tech community is pulling out of the shadow of Silicon Valley and putting its own spin on geek culture.

Like its predecessor, Twiistup 3 packed a sold-out crowd of Web folks and other geeks (including Doug Campbell from Tuxedo Travels and CNET alumnus Rich DeMuro) into the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice, where attendees talked tech, networked, and vetted business plans over drinks. And while Hilton may have been granted "special guest" status, the real stars of the evening were the event's "showoffs"--nine Web companies that set up shop in the venue to give demos and recruit employees.

Several of the companies have been covered on Webware and CNET before. DocStoc, the document-sharing site, gave Rafe Needleman a glimpse of the business climate last fall. Rubicon Project helps Web sites make more money off ads by managing multiple ad networks (see CNET News.com's take here). SpeedDate.com gives you 3 minutes to find a potential mate. PeopleJam, currently in "preview," connects people looking for advice on health, relationships, spirituality, and finances. And AskMeNow is a downloadable search application for your phone service that lets you ask any question via SMS (see our early review here; since that review was written Ask Me Now has dropped its per-message fee).

YellowBot, currently in beta, combines the structured directory of online yellow pages with social networking, tagging, and sharing features. The combination lets users find local businesses using both traditional keywords, such as "hotel," and tags, such as "dog friendly," as well as write reviews of places they frequent. The company is run by a former Citysearch exec who wanted to create a Web tool that capitalized on existing real-world relationships; ideally YellowBot users will be able to easily see what their friends and neighbors, rather than anonymous reviewers, have to say about local businesses.

A company rep described Thembid to me as "eBay for services." Say you need some plumbing work in your home. Traditionally you would assemble a list of plumbers and call each of them up individually to describe the job and ask for a price quote. ThemBid lets you enter the job description once, assign it a category, and wait for the bids to roll in. Registered businesses receive a notice when a request for a bid has been posted in their categories; a link takes them to a page where they can view your request, ask follow-up questions, and bid for the job. Both you and the business can register for free, but ThemBid makes money by charging businesses for premium profiles that will guarantee their bid is at the top of your list.

OfficeZilla is a free online collaboration space that lets you share a calendar, contact manager, files, and links with your selected work group. There's also a chat room, task manager, and message forums, all designed to take your workflow out of your e-mail client and into a shared virtual environment. Despite the word "office" in the product name, OfficeZilla is also pitching its space for churches, families, and other groups that need to share information.

Currently in beta, Magento is a open-source e-commerce software that lets businesses create a custom Web storefront, complete with product tagging, user review, and wishlist capabilities. Magento also creates search-engine friendly URLs and supports multiple languages and currencies. Because it's open source, enterprising developers can build customized versions of the software for individual businesses.