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Web collaboration involves creating and maintaining a web portal or suite of sites for user interactions. Examples include MySpace and YouTube, while businesses use it to store and share data. Real-time web conferencing and bulletin boards are also popular forms of web collaboration.
Web collaboration is the creation and maintenance of a Web portal or suite of sites that allow for user interactions of various kinds. The number and complexity of interaction methods offered varies from vendor to vendor.
Two of the most recognizable examples of web collaboration these days are MySpace and YouTube. Both offer repositories for user information, which can then be shared with others, mainly other “members” of the online community. MySpace provides users with a place to store text, photos, videos, and other forms of data for all to see. YouTube mainly offers video storage and viewing.
These sites almost exclusively offer web collaboration. Other websites offer collaboration features as services to increase the visibility and trust of corporate websites. It works both ways, with website users discovering the collaboration features through the original website and vice versa.
Web collaboration also has a more serious side. Businesses use websites or web-based applications to store and share data, such as database files or entire databases, spreadsheets, reports, financial documents, and even email services. Since these files or databases reside on web-based services, users can access them from anywhere, not just office computers. Such a feature is commonly accompanied by enhanced security, so users won’t worry that the files they are storing and sharing over the web are prime targets for hackers.
Another important feature of web collaboration that business users routinely access is real-time web conferencing. Users can log into one area of a website at any given time and be able to interact with other users, either using text only or using audio or perhaps even video capabilities. This is collaboration in its truest form, as web conferencing users are collaborating in using the web to have that conference online.
Another form of web collaboration that is very popular on websites around the world is the bulletin board or forum. Each of these is a place for discussion of various topics introduced by the site host or users. Some message boards and forums are the most active sites on the web.
Message boards and forums can be found on websites of all subjects. Some of the most active belong to sites dedicated to pop culture icons, such as movies, TV shows, film actors, and musical artists. Whenever a person reads or writes on a message board or forum, they engage in some form of web collaboration.
