Miro

Miro can best be described as an online collaborative whiteboard.  It can be used for brainstorming or organizing thoughts and strategies and has a similar feeling to a group covering a wall in sticky notes. To aid groups in their virtual collaboration it also has video & audio conferencing functionality built into it so users don’t need to be on a separate call to communicate with each other.  Miro is a great tool to keep brainstorming organized and allows users to work asynchronously in one communal space.  It contains a rich integration library with other pieces of software and comes with various presets for different workflows. Free users are limited to 3 active boards.  

COST:

  • Free accounts can create 3 boards, but anyone can contribute to a board

  • Paid version scales from $10 – $20 / month / user

Projects that used Miro:

 


NDI Tools

NDI Tools are a suite of tools made by Newtek for sharing video and audio across networks using the NDI protocol. While it is usually geared towards running on local networks as of version 5 it is possible to share video sources across the internet using NDI Bridge. NDI has direct compatibility with most modern video programs and has plugins for the Adobe Creative Cloud.

While NDI can be fairly CPU heavy to encode and decode, it can open up a whole host of possibilities for sharing video across various machines.  There are apps available to share smartphone cameras and screens as NDI sources and the tools package contains the NDI webcam utility which creates a virtual webcam (for zoom, etc) using any NDI feed on the network.

The full set of tools is Windows only but the MacOS tools still offer a lot of functionality.

COST:

  • NDI Tools are free

  • Some apps are paid

  • Specific hardware is also available


Notion

Notion brings together document editing with project management and aims to be an all-in-one workspace for individuals and teams.  Has a robust API for more advanced database configuration.  In addition to being an excellent tool for organization and knowledge sharing, Notion shines as a method of rapid prototyping websites.  Users with very little to no HTML knowledge can layout the flow of a site, embed various forms of media and then send a link to any testers or collaborators. 

COST:

  • Free for individuals with up to 5 guests

  • $4 / month for unlimited guests

  • $8 / user for teams


OBS

The Open Broadcast Software Project or OBS is a free and open-source software that is used for video recording and live streaming. Since it is open source, there are a lot of available plugins to extend functionality and there is a very active modding community. Originally only available via a plugin, OBS now has integrated Virtual Camera functionality.  This allows you to take your OBS composition and turn it into a camera feed that can be used anywhere where a regular camera input would be taken (Zoom etc).  This function opens up a wide range of streaming and remote working possibilities without requiring expensive software or hardware.  OBS has a highly customizable interface but because of this can seem a little intimidating to new users. 

Chroma keying can be done directly in OBS and can be pretty clean when paired with quality lighting.  The combination of OBS, chroma-keying, and vdo.ninja can be quite powerful for long-distance collaboration where the desired outcome is for multiple feeds to exist in the same virtual space. 

OBS has plugins that add functionality for NDI and Spout

COST: Free

Projects that used OBS:

 


Slack

Slack is a messaging suite aimed at businesses and offices. Meant as an alternative to emails, messages can be sent to groups, individuals, or posted in threads. It offers file sharing and voice and video calls as well as integration with other pieces of software such as google drive. Slack is a great way to keep information organized by department and keep quick questions out of email inboxes.

COST:

  • Free tier missing some features

  • Pro at $6.67 / user / month

  • Business+ at $12.50 / user / month


Trello

Trello is a web-based, Kanban-style list-making and project-management tool. Tasks are represented as cards that can be assigned to different boards or lists. Cards can have subtasks, deadlines, and users assigned to them. Automated tasks can be set up to streamline routine tasks and workflows with their no-code Butler system. Trello supports a wide array of integrations with different software and tools.

COST:

  • Free tier missing some features

  • Standard at $5 / user / month

  • Premium at $10 / user / month

  • Enterprise at sliding scale starting at $7.38 / user / month


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