CourseForum and ProjectForum, Jan 17

CourseForum Technologies recently announced new versions of its collaborative workspace offerings, ProjectForum 4.1 (intended for work and project teams), and CourseForum 4.1 (a tailored version of ProjectForum for e-learning endeavours).

There are some definite things to like about ProjectForum and CourseForum:

• Both products run on a variety of operating systems, thus not tying the project or learning group to a specific vendor. Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD are supported, and the product can be installed on a standard desktop if required (eg, for supporting a small group, or trialing the software).


• The products produce RSS feeds of new things in the various collaborative workspaces. This means that group members can leave the notification of new things to their RSS reader, rather than having to manually check in for new items.


• The pricing is based on the number of groups setting up a collaborative workspace. For ProjectForum, a single group pays US$229, whereas five groups pay US$569. There is also an Enterprise Licensing option based on a pay-per-user model, and this starts at US$1000 for 150 registered users. If this was installed on a Mac OS X Server, where there are no user CALs due (unlike a Microsoft Windows Server), the overall package is highly affordable. CourseForum is priced at a lower level, and there are various “per course” graduated pricing options as well as a “per student / campus licensing” plan.

There are some limitations in the two editions:

• There is no offline capability. You have to be connected to the Internet to get access. If team members are normally in the office or have wirelessly-equipped laptops when out this may not be a problem in reality, but it is something to be aware of. Although it is a different model, Groove Virtual Office 3.0 offers offline capability, as does Lotus Quickplace.


• Neither product displays the presence of other project or course members in the workspace, and thus can’t directly support instant messaging conversations within the workspace. Presence is a key enabler of group work in a collaborative workspace, and being able to hold a quick conversation with someone via IM is a neat social touch. Whilst definitely not a perfect product overall, Windows SharePoint Services integrates both of these capabilities very nicely, assuming of course that the additional supporting infrastructure from Microsoft is in place.

A couple of final observations:

• The company has obviously started life with a single product in mind (a collaborative learning workspace, CourseForum), and then decided that its technology could equally be applied to project teams. At some point I think the company should re-brand itself and its products to give greater latitude for introducing other editions, without being tied unnecessarily to its original persona. Perhaps “Forum Technologies” could offer “Forum Project” and “Forum Learning”.


• Potential users should decide upfront whether to adopt the per group or per user pricing model, as there are some migration challenges in shifting from per group to per user (Enterprise Licensing). The migration to the Enterprise Licensing option deletes all existing user accounts. That’s a bit of a pain, and I highly recommend that CourseForum Technologies seeks to resolve this limitation.

All in all, it is definitely worth checking out.

UPDATE: CourseForum offers a hosted version of both products, and evaluation copies too.

What is your experience with ProjectForum or CourseForum? Please drop me a line at michael.sampson@shared-spaces.com, or leave a comment below.

Comments

[Jules]

I'm a big fan of the 'less is more' approach to sofware like this: participation is the biggest hurdle, so the more usable and the easier to learn, the better.

that said, while i can see the value of these products for organizations w/o skilled web resources, it should be noticed that these seem like lightly modified and organized WIKIs. I'm not sure it would take an organization (WITH web skills/resources) a lot of time to grab an open source wiki, implement a similar model, and have the freedom to customize to that organizations particular needs.

as far as the project forum goes, i'd say www.basecamphq.com has a nicer, more functional and more professional approach, while keeping with the less-is-more approach.