Communication Tools: the Whole Enchilada

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on project communication tools!  As
we have been researching tools and recommendations, the institutional needs
for these systems has started growing.  In addition to project management we
are wondering about how collaboration tools can also meet communication
needs within our department:

• as a repository for documentation (how to install...)
• to provide an overview of what is going on in the department (this
• week...this month)
• as a place where all the bits of information can be brought together into
• a big snapshot

I have no expectations that technology will provide us with the sole
solution to improving communication and workflow, but I¹d really like to
hear more ideas and stories about how other institutions are effectively
using collaboration applications.  We narrowed down our list of possible
solutions to four:  mediaWiki, drupal, typepad and Teams.

And since drupal consolidates many kinds of content (wiki, blog, RSS, etc.)
we felt that it was the product most worth looking at.  Yeah...simple,
right? 

One of our graduate students did most of the initial research into
the applications and he presented his findings to some members of the
department who lead academic technology and some who lead administrative
technology.  We started zinging ideas and brainstorms until we happened upon
the real solution:  we want the whole enchilada.

We want tools that help us improve intra-departmental communication, manage
open-ended projects and communicate with those outside our institution.  And
while we¹re at it, can¹t this same system be used for distance learning and
course management?  Can¹t we have galleries of student work, class lectures
from instructors and course reminders?

Oh yeah, and we want to be mostly free and standards based and EASY to use.

Spang Bovey
(http://connect.educause.edu/blog/nspang/lms_vs_social_software/2540) and
William Allen (http://connect.educause.edu/blog/wallen/end_of_lms/16635)
have interesting posts about the future (or not) of LMS systems.  We have
decided to take a divide and conquer approach < I will spend a bit more time
with drupal and see if it meets our needs (with a focus on communication,
collaboration and project sharing) and my academic counterpart will spend
time with moodle and other systems to see what they might offer.

Thoughts, experiences, warnings and insights much appreciated!