Zoho have been winning prizes and accolades recently. As Arvind noted recently,

Just before winning the Best Enterprise Start-up at the Crunchies 2007, Zoho won another accolade. PCWorld recognized Zoho Notebook as one of the Most Innovative Products of 2007.

In a comment on a blog that commented on Zoho’s recent successes I found a link to Wrike, which offers free or paid-for online project management software. I looked through their site, although I have not tried the software, because I have no need to at the moment. If it works as well as the comments suggest then it is no doubt an excellent choice for someone who wants what they offer.

I am mentioning it here, though, not to offer a critique but simply to note its existence – and to note, in general, how many different groups of people are engaged in different attempts to create meaningful software-as-services at the moment.

I have yet to see the equivalent software from Zoho, and we are happily using Airset for our planning needs, although most of Arcada has moved to using the Blackboard Learning System as a way of managing communication and administration with students.

We have several problems with this, including the fact that it is apparently designed for teachers to administrate and students to use, whereas Airset is designed for group members to communicate with each other. In Airset anyone can set up a group and invite anyone else, and communication between two groups is only ever one or two clicks away.

This works for us because our systems depend on students engaging in group projects that are planned and discussed between staff and students. “Assignments” usually consist of group tasks that typically result in a presentation of some kind, and so there is no need for Blackboard’s very capable monitoring facilities. For us an assignment is completed when the presentation is made on the day that is scheduled in the calendar.

I point this out because my suspicion is that there may be more room for more developers in the software-as-service tent than many people currently suppose. Airset suits Jutta and me but not necessarily because it is a “better” product than its apparent competitors. It is a good product, and it is simple to use and effective – but its primary attraction is that the conceptual approach it takes fits neatly in with our pedagogical approach.

My concern – which I have been attempting to explain to anyone in Arcada who will listen – is not that people use the same software, but that the various different softwares are capable of talking to each other. In other words, I am very concerned that whatever we use is capable of exporting and importing information in open, standard formats. Airset is capable of importing and exporting iCal files for example, and it is a one step process to synchronise Airset with Palm Desktop and then to my pda. This does not appear to be possible with Blackboard. Or if it is then none of the Blackboard users here know how to do it, which is not very encouraging.

My other concern is that a communal system should place the power with the individual members. I do not want students to have portfolios buried inside a system. I want them to have their own online portfolios (that they can keep and take with them when they graduate), and I want these to be able to be hooked into the system through links and distributed publishing.