Who are they and what do they do?
Wiggio is an online toolkit and platform for all types of group work and related functions. The project was started by two Cornell University graduates who sought to streamline the process of group work and its responsibilities. Released to the public in September of 2008, Wiggio’s mission is to continuously develop an application that eliminates the frustration of working in groups by providing the powerful, straightforward functionality that you need to work effectively. Among its direct competitors include GroupLoop (www.grouploop.com) and GroupTable (www.grouptable.com).
Who is this application for?
Wiggio is geared toward meeting the needs of essentially all types of scenarios in group work. It is best suited for a group looking to house all modes of communication in one place. It eliminates the need for long email chains, contact books, phone tags, and similar inefficiencies that is common with group work.
What functions and tools can this application perform?
Once a group is created in Wiggio, its members have equal access to variety of tools to aid in enhancing communication, learning, and productivity. According to their website, Wiggio has six main tools for promoting group work.
Six main tools for Wiggio
1. Host virtual meetings and conference calls.
2. Create to-do lists and assign tasks.
3. Send email, text, and voice messages.
4. Manage events with a shared calendar.
5. Poll your group in real time.
6. Upload and manage files in a shared folder.
Group members have the option of hosting web-based, full featured virtual meetings in a seamless manner. These meetings offer video, voice or chat communication, and allow members to share presentations, documents, and other concepts through the site’s whiteboard.
The to-do list feature is the group site’s center for managing tasks and responsibilities. It allows members to assign tasks to the entire group, or certain individuals, with the ability to insert due dates as well as reminders through various modes of communication. The tools also have a built in discussion thread to aid in task specific conversations.
Lending to its powerful communication abilities, Wiggio allows users to send messages to all its group members via multiple mediums in the form of text, email, and voice messages.
Adding to the organizational ability of Wiggio, the calendar feature allows all of the group events to be documented in one place. From here, one can schedule meetings, events, and due dates. The calendar has the added function of being able to synch to other calendars, and can even generate automated email / SMS reminders.
In effort to help gauge group behaviors and attitudes, members can create polls to share with others to help answer important questions.
With regard to productivity and storage, Wiggio offers one folder for members to store all documents, photos, and videos. From this place, files can be created and edited online, or even uploaded from a computer. Files can essentially be accessed anywhere with internet connection.
How does this application work?
Wiggio is used by forming a group through its web based interface. From here, the administrator can invite members to join by providing email addresses, and thus forming an online space for the actual group to communicate. The group site receives an email address, a web address, as well as a user name and password. By creating a free account with ones email and phone number, this data is used to activate the many built-in communicates tools. Wiggio is completely web-based and all data is stored online using cloud technology.
The layout of the group site is limited to one main page, with the major attention of the space focusing on a chronological feed that lists impending events implemented by others, such as polls to take, scheduled events and other various tools as described above. The icons for these six tools are horizontally lined on the top of the page, whereas contact information for the group and its members are listed on the left. Overall, it has a feel of a productivity blog, with a hybrid of communication tools from social media sites such as facebook, intertwined with a posting feed similar to a conventional blog. Whereas other online communication services such as Blackboard, Inc. contain multiple tabs and pages, Wiggio simplifies its six tools on one page, and relies on pop ups to activate particular tasks such as creating a poll.
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Case Study: In October of 2011, myself and a partner each created free accounts through Wiggio with the purpose of testing its suitability based on five criteria: user-friendliness; productivity-enhancing abilities; start-up barriers; storage and archive abilities; and stability. Rating is based on a scale of 1-5 stars.
Is it user-friendly? ★★★★★
Wiggio was designed with a high regard for user-friendliness, as it understands that oftentimes group members come from all types of skill and electronic comfort levels. The site's homepage is very intuitive, as it maintains a simple interface and limits the amount of choices to the point where one does not feel overwhelmed. Characteristics such as a simple white background paired with whimsical icons are almost an homage to Apple, Inc., a layout recipe that makes sites such as Facebook immensely popular. I think the overall theme with Wiggio is its simplicity. Sign up is easy. Creating a group is easy. Responding to an invitation is easy. Even sometimes daunting tasks such as importing a calendar is done with ease, as I was able to import my Google Calendar Beta .ICS file within three to four clicks of the mouse. Again, what makes this a straightforward process are the "literal" icons, such as an illustrated plus sign button to indicate where one can add a group member. And this pattern is repeated throughout all other uses of the tool, such as creating an event to polling your group.
Much of the above characteristics also point to a trusting sense of transparency with Wiggio. Many of its competitors such as GroupTable make it very difficult to understand exactly what services are being provided.
Wiggio was designed with a high regard for user-friendliness, as it understands that oftentimes group members come from all types of skill and electronic comfort levels. The site's homepage is very intuitive, as it maintains a simple interface and limits the amount of choices to the point where one does not feel overwhelmed. Characteristics such as a simple white background paired with whimsical icons are almost an homage to Apple, Inc., a layout recipe that makes sites such as Facebook immensely popular. I think the overall theme with Wiggio is its simplicity. Sign up is easy. Creating a group is easy. Responding to an invitation is easy. Even sometimes daunting tasks such as importing a calendar is done with ease, as I was able to import my Google Calendar Beta .ICS file within three to four clicks of the mouse. Again, what makes this a straightforward process are the "literal" icons, such as an illustrated plus sign button to indicate where one can add a group member. And this pattern is repeated throughout all other uses of the tool, such as creating an event to polling your group.
Much of the above characteristics also point to a trusting sense of transparency with Wiggio. Many of its competitors such as GroupTable make it very difficult to understand exactly what services are being provided.
Productivity enhancing?
★★★★★Wiggio offers many indirect benefits when it comes to productivity, and is based on the premise that increased effective communication breeds increased productivity. The main variable in this formula is time management, as Wiggio allows group members to be reached in multiple ways, gauges attitudes and behaviors quickly, and keeps everyone seamlessly up to date via the chronological news feed . Such efficiency creates more time to complete specific project objectives such as report writing and data collection.
With regard to the direct productivity applications in Wiggio, the online collaboration tool also makes a great effort to keep things in-house with word processing and spreadsheet software. Powered by zoho's web-based office productivity suites, group members can easily create, edit and share .doc and .xml files. Both GroupLoop and GroupTable offer no built on office productivity software.
Start-up barriers
Another added bonus to Wiggio is the absence of start-up barriers, such as membership costs, added software installations, and operating systems incompatibilities. Wiggio is a free service that only requires a few data fields upon registration, including: name; email address, mobile number; zip code; birth year; gender; and password.
Competitors to Wiggio, such as GroupLoop do come with such barriers. For instance, groups larger than 150 people require a $59/month membership fee; GroupTable requires a minimum $8/month fee for full access to all tools. Additionally, both GroupLoop and GroupTable require more in-depth registrations processes
Storage and archive capability
★★★★★Another added bonus to Wiggio is the absence of start-up barriers, such as membership costs, added software installations, and operating systems incompatibilities. Wiggio is a free service that only requires a few data fields upon registration, including: name; email address, mobile number; zip code; birth year; gender; and password.
Competitors to Wiggio, such as GroupLoop do come with such barriers. For instance, groups larger than 150 people require a $59/month membership fee; GroupTable requires a minimum $8/month fee for full access to all tools. Additionally, both GroupLoop and GroupTable require more in-depth registrations processes
Storage and archive capability
Wiggio uses full cloud technology, where all group data and shared files are stored on multiple servers around the globe. As of now, there appears to be no limit on the amount of data a member can store. Because of the nature of the group newsfeed, all information is archived indefinably and can be located at any time.
With a Grouploop free account, members can upload no more than 3 MB of data.
Stability
Thousands of businesses and organizations use Wiggio to host their files. As such, the company takes security and privacy very seriously by using Amazon's Cloud servers for increased protection.
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Other reviews and tutorials
1. Video tutorials from Wiggio.com.
http://wiggio.com/#tpl=about_wiggio_0
Wiggio.com offers over ten video tutorials ranging from 1-3 minutes and covers the complete list of tools as advertised by the web site.
Main focus of the source:
- concise video tutorials.
- step-by-step guide for using each tool.
- interactive capabilities.
2. Review from Columbia University's Teacher College online publication EdLab.
This comprehensive review is written by Jason Mariasis, who is editor of EdLab. The post offers clearly outlined information regarding the pros, cons, and bottom line of the product. (Note: this review was posted one month before the latest release of Wiggio, which has no reported bugs).
Main findings of the source:
- The free, intuitive system has no learning curve.
- This product is applicable for all types of group work and has little limitations.
- The success of this product is hinged on its simplicity.
3. From Technology & Learning: "Top web tools for enhancing collaboration."
Karaoglu, Ozge. "Top Web tools for enhancing collaboration." Technology & Learning Nov. 2010: 30+.Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.
Main findings of the source:
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-collaboration/wiggio-20-your-fast-track-to-overachievement-010639.php
CMSWire is a web magazine focusing on information management, digital customer experience management, and the emergence of social business tools and practices. The article is written in light of the recent success of Wiggio after its latest 2011 release.
Main findings of the article:
Karaoglu, Ozge. "Top Web tools for enhancing collaboration." Technology & Learning Nov. 2010: 30+.Academic OneFile. Web. 9 Oct. 2011.
Main findings of the source:
- An easy to use online tool kit.
- Group work is maximized through increased communication modes.
- Unique features are collaborative calendar and video conference set up.
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-collaboration/wiggio-20-your-fast-track-to-overachievement-010639.php
CMSWire is a web magazine focusing on information management, digital customer experience management, and the emergence of social business tools and practices. The article is written in light of the recent success of Wiggio after its latest 2011 release.
Main findings of the article:
- The Wiggio base has grown 70% in the last year to over 700,000 users.
- Wiggio has found success in reaching beyond the scope of college social networking by appealing to political campaigns, non-profits, and community groups.
- The company uses fourth-graders to aid in its usability research.
