My 5 favorite ways to “share” on the Web

Whew!  I had a busy day today….  I spend most of my time sharing information with other people vis various technologies on the web.  I remember (not *all* that long ago) when information sharing was nearly as effortless — in college I stayed up until 3am faxing business proposals to Kazakhstan.  I often marvel at how easy it is to communicate with people around the world.

It is becoming easier and easier to build your own personal “cloud” on the web.   Often you can do this for free.  Here are some of my favorite “sharing” apps that you can use for free (or very inexpensively)

1.  Dropbox This is my favorite “cloud app”.  Once you sign up and download the software, all of your files are accessed through a folder on your desktop. It is just like they are native on your hard drive… yet the people you share the files with have access too.  I use this daily for clients (especially for *huge* files)  but I also share with myself so I can work from any computer and everything stays in sync.  Amazing!

2. Google Docs Google docs has a nice “mini” office suite build right into gmail.  You can share Word documents, spreadsheets, powerpoints and more.  A recent revision even gives you the ability to open up file formats that don’t have the software for (i.e. photoshop).  You can also easily create forms that input date into a google spreadsheet.  I find the spreadsheets especially handy for organizing potlucks.

3. Jing Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.  Jing is a free program that makes it super simple to make a quick screencast when you need to *show* someone how to do something on the web.   The downside is that the videos can only be 5 minutes long.

4. Join.me I just discovered this today (thank you Denise Garratt).  Join.me is a super easy way to do impromptu screen casts.  All you do in install the software (takes a minute) – and then click share.  You get a number you can give to other people to see your screen. Works well for PC and Mac.

5. MindMeister Mindmeister is a web based mind mapping program.  The thing that sets it apart from other programs is that you can use it to collaborate in real time.  You can actually see when your “partner” is adding links and making comments.   MindMeister makes virtual brainstorming meetings really fun.

What are your favorite sharing/collaboration apps?