Software Review

Collaborative Software for teamwork

NOVEMBER 29, 2018Eoin WilkieG00363134

ContentsIntroduction...............................................................................................................................2

Skype......................................................................................................................................... 3

Discord.......................................................................................................................................5

Teams.........................................................................................................................................7

Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 9

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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.

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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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