

Ask HN: What virtual-team software do you use? - axeman

For a virtual team spread across the globe, what software do you use for collaboration and project management?
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mpk
In our company almost everyone uses Skype for voice. But that also means
adding contacts for everyone you want to talk to, so it's not really a company
standard.

We use IM extensively and have a public (as in 'on the open net') Jabber
server. If you have an account here, you'll automatically have the whole
company at your disposal.

We also have conference rooms for collaboration and a bunch of bots operating
here. If you're in software, you'll have access to the dev room, for example.
All the build information and unit test results get dumped there. Conference
rooms are also great for a-synchronous group communication.

The main office has a high speed data link and you can connect to it via
OpenVPN. This gives you access to the code repositories, testing databases
(mainly for projects), wikis and other stuff depending on your profile.

Oh, yeah, we use email too :) But that's mostly for announcements, long-
running discussions and communicating with third-parties.

I've used gotomeeting on my virtual windows machine for going through some
project-specific details. Voice still goes through Skype.

IRC is great for a couple of developers on a private channel, but generally
sucks for running a project or a company with non-techies. Run your own XMPP
server.

Disciplined coding ninjas are rare. Use a centralized source repository and
have everyone commit to that. We use SVN and with trac on top of it, it's a
win situation all 'round. People that want to use git can use git-svn. (If you
have developers complaining about SVN and not being able to use git-svn, you
shouldn't have them committing in the first place).

Wikis (especially those from trac with integration with your source code) are
a really good way to document some knowledge.

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clint
IRC, Email, Git :)

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andrewow
Hey! You should definitely use Voxli (disclaimer: this is a shameless plug
since I'm a cofounder). We're easy to use web based voice chat.

1) You get your own URL so you don't need to conference call people in each
time.

2) We're client-server, so you can have tons of people in each conference room

3) We're free since we're in beta =)

<https://voxli.com>

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lecha
In order of importance: IM, skype, email, phone conference, trac, wiki, yammer
(just starting)

Ironically, most valuable collaboration/project management tools are "generic"
like im, voice, email as oppose to those designed specifically for
collaboration/project management.

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asnyder
I also recommend GoToMeeting. It's indispensable for team meetings, real time
collaboration, and demonstrations. It'll set you back $50 a month, but is
leaps and bounds ahead of their competition and vastly cheaper.

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catone
Skype, IM (usually Yahoo! since it supports offline messages), Basecamp (less
than I used to), Google Docs, email, and Senduit for sending large files back
and forth.

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mbleigh
Present.ly, Google Apps, Skype, Unfuddle.

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afrombie
Socialcast, Campfire, and Google Docs.

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skmurphy
Skype, CentralDesktop, DabbleBoard

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justinchen
IM, Skype, Google docs & spreadsheets, pbwiki (more organized docs than
google), gmail

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antirez
Something that implements a chat voice and screen sharing in order to hack
together on the same source code? It's basically Mac OS X "screen sharing",
but I need something that runs on Linux. Btw Mac's screen sharing is an
impressive tool to work together.

~~~
jauco
Try gnu screen + vim/emacs/nano

~~~
antirez
If you think skype + screen -x is a replacement for Mac OS X screen sharing
you should really try it. It's more like Skype + VNC, but a VNC that works
much better.

This is the working pattern, you and the other side both see the same screen
and can type and use the cursor at the same time, while doing high quality
voice chat. So you have for example a terminal with vi opened and code while
talking, then open Firefox to reload and check what happened to the
application after the modifications and so on.

All this very fluid under a common DSL line. It's almost like being on the
same room.

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seregine
Skype, MediaWiki, Trac, code reviewer, Gmail, Google Docs.

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jpirkola
realXtend (<http://www.realxtend.org>) for virtual meetings and scrum, skype,
google docs

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hvs
Campfire, GTalk, Windows Messenger, Crucible, JIRA

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carbon8
Redmine, Basecamp, Google Docs, IM, Email, Skype.

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modoc
Confluence, Jira, Campfire, SVN, Email, IM

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billroberts
iChat, Skype, Swirrl, email

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ryanwaggoner
Redmine, Google Apps, Skype

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gleb
Acunote, Skype, Google App

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cglee
skype, campfire, github, redmine, email, yugma (for screensharing)

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hwijaya
Skype, Redmine, Email

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ojbyrne
IRC, Trac, Email.

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rguzman
codebase, gmail, google sites.

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kbrower
pivotal tracker,email,gchat

