As I begin my annual end of year reflection process on where I have been, what I have done and how much I have learned a number of experiences stand out in my mind as formative, influential, or just plain fun. One in particular, the ASAE Annual Conference in Chicago demonstrated just how powerful technology can be to connect multiple people in multiple locations all at the same time. This experience came to be known as the Association Backchannel and by using our mobile phones those that participated were able to share our learning experiences, find out where everybody was and make arrangements to meet up on the fly.

The platform chosen to facilitate the exchange was appropriately enough TXTmob. TXTmob was developed by the Institute for Applied Autonomy for protesters at the in Boston and the Republican National Convention in New York and was a huge success. It continues to be offered by Tad Hirsch, a researcher at MIT’s Smart Cities Group as a free service. Tad is also coordinating a long overdue upgrade (hopefully to address some of the inconsistencies that me and others in the group experienced as well as to add some new features and refresh the web UI).

A few really cool things about txtMob was that the group administrator could create groups and control who could/couldn’t participate (not that we had restrictive policies, but it is a great feature) in the Mob. An added benefit was the ability to participate in the mob from the web and the fact that the transcript was archived for later reference.

My only complaint about the whole experience using txtMob was the fact that as a Verizon Wireless customer using a MotorolaQ SmartPhone I was unable to participate because for one reason or another either due to my phone, Verizon or the software itself using SMS. I could use the browser on the phone in a pinch if I wanted to send a message and I was able to receive messages flawlessly, but being unable to use it the way it was designed to be used defeated the purpose and took a lot of the fun out of the experience.

The vexing aspect of my problem was a colleague: BMart, had the same phone on the same provider and had no problems whatsoever. However, I also heard complaints from folks that had Blackberry’s experienced similar challenges, so I promised myself that the next time we gathered en enmasse I would help find a few other viable solutions that worked for all people, or at least as many people as possible. I guess the experiment was getting a bit more formal. Accessibility, security and ease of use all became essential requirements.

One solution that I recently stumbled upon was a service called Mozeo. Mozeo leapt on to the scene in 2005 in the hopes of capitalizing on the mobile phone craze by converging the worlds of chat, blogs and text messaging in the mobile environment. Their flagship product Mozeo Go Groups, essentially a mobile chatroom, is mobile group text messaging made easy. The basic premise is that you sign-up, create a group and start sending messages. You send a message and everybody receives it, someone responds and you and everybody else receives it. It’s that simple and it allows you to communicate with your entire circle of friends from your mobile phone.

For comparison sake there are a few other players in this space that are also worth looking at including: Swarm-it, Zemble, Kiboze, 3jam, and Dodgeball. Even one of my favorite persistent presence applications Twitter has similar functionality but, at least in my opinion, Twitter excels in one-to-many messaging as opposed to the more specialized one to few offered by applications like Mozeo. It’s not a matter of it being good or bad, rather just knowing what tool is most appropriate for what you want to accomplish.

If you are looking for group text messaging that is simple and effective Mozeo may be exactly what you are looking for. Mozeo: http://www.mozeo.com.

How many times are you working on a project with a distributed team when email or phone calls just aren’t cutting it? If you are like me, it happens all the time. Sometimes what you need is a way to get face-to-face with the person or people without the expense or hassle of being in the same place at the same time.

Enter TokBox a free service that allows you to talk to friends and colleagues over live video. All you have to do is head to TokBox, sign-up and they will give you a link that you can use anytime and almost anywhere you want just by sharing a link to your TokBox.

You can put your TokBox on your Facebook, MySpace, or almost any other page, blog or website that you can embed a small amount of code on.

TokBox has widgets for MySpace, Friendster, Freewebs, Blogger, orkut, LiveJournal, iGoogle, WordPress.com, myYearbook, Facebook, TypePad, Netvibes, Xanga and also cut and paste code for almost any other use). If/when you are online, all the other person needs to do is click on the “Push to Talk” button and it initiates a live video chat.

I can see a lot of different uses for this application from providing customer and technical support in a more personal manner to allowing you to connect someone face-to-face when you or they are out of the office. Despite all of the great technology advances we are enjoying, sometimes face-to-face is the best way to get things done. This tool makes it efficient, effective and easy to do just that. You can see how I implemented it on my blog by visiting my contact page

There is no cost, no hassle (other than a really simple sign-up and the need for you to be able to insert a small code snippet to the site you want to add your TokBox to) and nothing to download. An added benefit is the ability to control who can see you and who can’t, always nice for ensuring a modicum of privacy.

Another really cool extension of the application is through it’s integration with Meebo. If you have a Meebo account you can actually launch a group video chat session with up to six people. You can read more about this on the TokBox Blog. Tokbox: http://www.tokbox.com

How often do you have to collaborate with others to think through a new or existing idea? Exploratree was designed to rapidly facilitate the idea iteration process. It’s essentially an interactive mind mapping tool with a few twists.

Using Flash as the engine, Exploratree allows users to create what they call “Thinking Guides” - tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives that can be useful for helping to develop thinking skills. You can use one of their 23 ready-made templates or simply work from a blank canvas to develop your own to add images, text, and shapes that help you develop and evolve your thoughts.

While the application was originally designed as part of the Enquiring Minds project - a three-year research and development program that is run by Futurelab and funded by Microsoft - working alongside teachers and students in two UK secondary schools the project to develop a distinctive approach to teaching and learning that takes the knowledge, ideas, interests and skills that students bring into schools more seriously and enables young people to take more responsibility for the content, processes, and outcomes of their learning, it is now available for more general use.

By using the power and functionality of the application you can create your document and then send it to a friend or group of friends for review/comment, or allow them to log-in to your Thinking Guide to edit and save changes.

I see a lot of relevance and applicability for this application, and others like it, in connecting distributed work teams and allowing them to rapidly iterate through ideas and projects they are working on/through. I can also see a lot of value in using it alone because it’s simplicity and ease of use allows a user to focus the creation or elaboration of an idea or brainstorm as opposed to being focused on the technology used to facilitate the ideation or brainstorming process. In other words it does what it’s supposed to without getting in your way.

If you are a visual thinking (like I am) who is looking for a light weight, web based tool that is feature rich but very easy to use for collaborating or brainstorming, I’d say that Exploratree is worth taking a look at. No download is required. You can try it without registering, or sign up to the service to get your work saved online, all for free. Exploratree: http://www.exploratree.org.uk