I’ve had a number of conversations over the course of the past week and a half regarding tools or applications that can be used to create online communities or team sites that are functionally robust but easy for the members/participants as well as those administering them. I would generally point people to a list of the usual suspects such as Ning, and LinkedIn largely because they are well known, easy to use, and familiar names to many people. However, a few weeks ago, after completing the first week of the four-year U.S. Chamber of Commerce IOM program and becoming very close to my classmates, I wanted to create a place where my colleagues from the IOM class could collaborate.

As I thought through the aforementioned list of tools and also considered Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups none of them, presented the right mix of functionality and usability that I was looking for from an administrative and end-user perspective. What I really wanted for was a tool or service that allowed me to create a closed community site and combined the threaded discussions of a typical forum, group calendaring, the ability to share photos, links and files, and some aspects of the popular social networking sites in an affordable, semi-customizable and easy-to-use package. A tall order no doubt, but it was with those features in mind that I began my search.

A quick Google search yielded a lot of results, some relevant, some not, but one link looked promising: Groupsites by Collective X which offered “free private or public Groupsite(s) for sharing and keeping your group connected.” Intrigued, I decided to explore the offering a bit further and was really excited with what I had found. The product tour was very revealing and based on my shortlist above I felt relative assured that I had found what I was looking for. The video below effectively provides a really good introduction to the service.

What I found really attractive was the fact that the service is feature rich (it doesn’t have everything that I would want, but it’s not bloated either), and that the basic service is free. The company charges additional fees for additional storage, advertising removal, etc. It even has an option for large organizations allowing them to pay a yearly license fee to create multiple networks. For some additional insight into the product take a look at Mike Arrington’s Tech Crunch write up on the today’s official launch of the Groupsite service and some additional details along with some insightful discussion in the comment threads.

It’s pretty obvious that the service has a number of strengths and very few weaknesses. Yet it might not appeal to all, it will all depend on your needs. However, if you are considering setting up a community site and want a flexible service with strong support then I suggest taking a good look at the CollectiveX Groupsites. I am really happy with the service as are my colleagues who are participating in the community. In closing, here is a look at the site I set-up.