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Software Review
Collaborative Software for teamwork
NOVEMBER 29, 2018Eoin WilkieG00363134
ContentsIntroduction...............................................................................................................................2
Skype......................................................................................................................................... 3
Discord.......................................................................................................................................5
Teams.........................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 9
1
Introduction
For this review I will look at collaborative software, focusing on communication. I will look at 3 programs, Skype, Discord and Microsoft Teams.
Communication software is an application or program designed to pass information from one system to another. Each of these programs offer different degrees of communications and collaborating functionality and they fill a different niche.
Communication software stems from e-mail, which had matured to recognizable state around the mid-1970s. CU-SeeMe, released in 1992 added camera functionality. And around the mid 1990’s instant messaging and web chat became popular.
Modern communication programs seem to have merged with forum services. An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.
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They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text and are at least temporarily archived.
Both developments have huge benefits for groups. Instant message is superior to e-mail in many ways, it allows teams to engage in an active conversation which is much more condensed than e-mail, and the forum feature stores conversations and files.
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Skype
Skype is a free software program
that allows you to make video and
audio calls peer-to-peer or in
groups. Though it is now owned by
Microsoft, it was first released in
2003 and was developed by
independent developers from
Denmark, Sweden and Estonia.
With Skype, you can send instant
messages, share files and share your screen with anyone else you'd like to converse with, no
matter where you are in the world. Skype is available on Windows, Linux and Mac. Using Skype
requires a Microsoft account and your skype account is then connected to other Microsoft
features such as e-mail.
Skype offers all of the standard communication features, you can make calls and send
messages. You can also share files, although from my experience this is not the as impressive as
the file sharing features offered by Skypes competitors.
Skype benefits greatly from association with Microsoft, it is available on x-box and has access to
a vast language translation feature, Skype has a voice translator for video calls that currently
works in 8 languages, as well as a text translator that's available in more than 50 languages for
instant messaging, which uses machine learning to translate conversations.
In my opinion Skype has been the standard for communications programs ever since is
surpassed MSN messenger in market share, MSN messenger has since been merged with skype
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since Microsoft acquisition of Skype. Over the years Skype has gone through many iterations.
Versions 8 onwards have been a major overhaul of the program, modernizing the product but
also restricting many options for the user. previously the user could customize many details of
how skype worked for them. In my opinion this has been a negative change, being the primary
reason for my moving to other products. However, I can see the advantages of this. The
simplified Skype is more accessible and portable.
As for Skype as collaborative software, I think it is fine for what it does, but I do not think it
compares well with the features offered by newer products. I do not think it scales well with
multiple users involved. As a one-to-one communication program, it serves its purpose well.
As more users become involved it becomes quite messy as skype communication is divided into
chats unlike competitors which are divided into channels. I do not consider Skype a great
communication collaboration tool, it is free software and is very intuitive to use but most of its
competitors are based on the example Skype has set. I don’t believe Skype is designed to meet
the needs of large-scale collaboration.
Skype does offer a paid-for
Skype for Business option. I
have not used this and have
little information to offer
regarding.
It does seem to be the most
commonly suggested
communication collaboration
tool. Increasingly suggested as the importance of the communication increases and as the scale
of the users increases. Skype for business offers a Skype Broadcast option which enables you to
schedule a meeting or broadcast to an audience of up to 10,000 attendees. For comparison,
Teams enables a meeting of up to 250 attendees. Skype for Business, however, is a paid for
service and this precludes it as an option for many groups.
5
Discord
Discord is a proprietary
freeware VoIP application
and digital distribution
platform designed for
video gaming
communities, that
specializes in text, image,
video and audio
communication between
users in a chat channel. It is developed by Discord Inc.
Firstly, I will describe the gaming communications eco-system which it entered in 2015. Prior to
discord the main voice communication programs available were Ventrilo and TeamSpeak. Both
are very similar, offering a small number of free slots per server with an option to rent a server
for increased slots. Offering up to 400 or 500 slots at highest. Each offered chat rooms for oral
communication. There were 2 problems with this, 1) You don’t know which program the group
would use (if it was a ‘new’ group) and 2) A subscription is necessary once you move above
groups of 8.
Discord rectified these problems, it is available through URL so there is no need to download
the program, although it has a downloadable program and it also has no subscription
requirements.
It also integrated text communications, each chat channel has text communication associated
with it which has largely replaced the need for forums, which was also a subscription-based
service in most cases.
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Gaming in a lot of cases is group work. Especially when coordination, preparation and
strategizing are requirements. Realtime communication becomes a necessity as well as forums
to bounce back and forth ideas.
Discords target market is gamers and it offers quite a lot of features for this audience, fulfilling
oral and written communication requirements as well as offering communities for its users. One
community might be a group you game with another might be an information site, for example
I have joined the .Development community, which outlines its aims as follows:
I find Discord to fulfil any needs I can foresee in a collaboration project, and in fact I used it
when working on my first-year group project. My main critique with written communication is
it not being categorized and while Discord does offer a pin option, which tags specified
messages to be accessible through the pinned menu tab, it doesn’t intelligently distinguish the
messages. For comparison, Teams has a separate tab where files can be stored, and this makes
return access very sensible.
Discords target market is gamers and it offers great integration for a selection of popular games
but it is lacking when it comes to sharing files or scheduling meetings.
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Teams
Microsoft Teams is a chat-based
workspace in Office 365. It brings
together people, conversations
and content along with the tools
that teams need so they can
easily collaborate to achieve
more. It is integrated with the
familiar Office applications and is
built from the ground up on the Office 365 global, secure cloud.
The first feature offered by teams is a forum-like chat function. This allows you to create
channels for a specified purpose and communicate with team members. For example, my team
used separate channels for Sway discussions, presentation discussions and general
communication, this allows for several conversations to be ongoing at any one time without
being lost or forgotten, this works almost identically to Discord.
Team members may also upload files which can be edited in real-time, allowing other users to
both see what each member contributes and to see this as contributions are made. My team
used this functionality for both creating a report via Microsoft Word and in creating a mind-
map for our presentation subject. This online hub was a quality of life upgrade over offline
alternatives and sets Teams apart from the alternatives I mentioned.
For our meeting we made use of 2 features from Microsoft Teams. Firstly, we scheduled a
meeting, this was done through teams and it notified each member of the meeting date and
time and allowed for team members to respond, indicating if they can attend or not.
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I am unsure if this feature reminded members of this meeting or not, I did not install the
Microsoft Teams app until our meeting time. I think it would be logical for it to remind team
members prior to the meeting with a pop-up and I assume the app would have reminded
members who had it running.
The second feature we used for our meeting was the communication features which provided
both audio and video options. Our team members did not avail of this feature and as such I
cannot comment on the quality of the video feature. As for the voice feature, I cannot
complain, if my memory is correct it is like Skype which another Microsoft product.
I liked Microsoft Teams it
was accessible and while it
seems to be an
amalgamation of other
technologies which I would
be content to use in its place
the online hub does have its
benefits. I have no
criticisms Teams, it feels
very familiar which is always
great for a new product.
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Conclusion
Of these 3 products, Microsoft Teams is the most specialized for team work. All these programs
will function fine for collaboration, but Skype will meet limitations when the active group
members exceeds 2 and both Skype and Discord will meet limitations when it comes to
engaging in active group work, such as sharing a simple Microsoft Word file. Teams allowing all
group members to modify this file without downloading or uploading sets it apart and
distinguishes it as the more specialized program for me.
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Recommended