Blog #1 - Web 2.0

In the world of online collaboration a shift has come. Opportunities opened by Web 2.o offer solutions to individuals, teams and corporations only dreamed about 10 years ago. As connections continue to be formed and these teams seek to be more effective in their planning and collaboration, there are several sites available to streamline their efforts and add to their productivity.

One service now offered, www.planningcenteronline.com, allows churches (pastors, worship leaders, volunteers, teachers, etc.) to centralize their planning, scheduling, and calendars, and make resources available from a site available through any internet connection. Churches are often run with the efforts of volunteers or part-time paid staff, and this constraint often limits planning and collaboration due to inexperienced workers, time available, and individual schedules. Take the example of a simple Sunday morning service:

Before Web 2.0:

1. The Pastor decides the topic for a given Sunday.
2. The Pastor meets with the Worship Leader to share the topic and direction for worship.
3. The Worship Leader plans the songs, the order, and prepare the sheet music.
4. The Worship Leader contacts the musicians, singers, and media crew about the service details and schedule of practices and service times.

Planning Center (Web 2.0):

1. The Pastor decides the topic for a given Sunday.
2. The Pastor meets with the Worship Leader to share the topic and direction for worship.
3. The Worship Leader selects the songs, enters the order, and selects the sheet music in planning center.(Planning Center has a over 2500 songs online)
   
4. The Worship Leader invites the musicians, singers, and media workers by sending out one email through Planning Center. (Every person involved in the church becomes a user on planning center and their information saved)
5. Those involved have access to the schedule, order, and media assets included in the service and either accept the invitation or decline it.
6. An email confirming whether each person invited accepts or declines is returned automatically to the Worship Leader through Planning Center.
   

With all of the information controlled from a single source everyone has access to what they need, updates are available for every person, assets are accessible at any time, communication is improved, and scheduling reminders are sent automatically. Now planning and implementation is more effective, and creativity is improved due to collaboration and time saved.

Another site changing collaborative efforts is Zoho.com. Solutions have been available for some time for corporations to collaborate on projects, but they cost large amounts of money and required expensive infrastructure. Zoho has brought a free service to individuals, small teams, businesses and classrooms to collaborate and cooperate on documents similar to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Other major contributions are a calendar, wiki's, tasks, notebooks, links and contacts. With the availability to share important contacts with the rest of the team, every person has access to the tools needed to accomplish the team tasks. Perhaps the greatest tool available is real-time online voice and text chats, opening the availability to collaborate on a document in real time while communicating about the changes being made and what still needs to be changed.

These are only two of the many tools available online. Web 2.0 is opening doors to effective cooperation and providing tools that will change the way teams and businesses accomplish day to day tasks.