Online Platforms

Summary:

• Online Collaboration Tools and Platforms let you share resources and conversations and enable you to collaborate remotely with colleagues, peers, and fellow professionals  around the world.
• It is especially critical for development organizations that serve an international audience distributed over multiple countries to be able deliver a significant portion of its meetings, events, learning and training, and other collaboration interventions, using online tools.
• When choosing an online tool, consider carefully the readiness of the team or department, familiarity with the tool, resistance to the tool. As with all good change management, check with others, and warn, prepare, and include people in the decision so that the best tool for the task is chosen. 

What are Online Collaboration Tools and Platforms?

Online Collaboration Tools and Platforms let you share resources and conversations and enable you to collaborate remotely with colleagues, peers, and fellow professionals  around the world. 

The World Bank Group, for example, uses several online collaboration tools including Microsoft Office 365, Yammer, Teams and the Collaboration 4 Development (C4D) platform. Other development organizations may use other popular tools and platforms to enable online collaboration.

Additionally, communities can be built on Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Slack and so on.

Why are Online Collaboration Tools and Platforms important?

There is no better way to communicate and collaborate with peers and colleagues than in person through real-time interactions. However, many development organizations like the World Bank Group which serves over 68 countries, address a global audience. It would be unrealistic to think that all or even a significant portion of their meetings, events, learning and training courses and classes, and other collaboration interventions, can be held in person. Hence, the need to set up an ecosystem of tools and platforms that enable practitioners to work together even when they are physically apart.

This need for online collaboration tools and platforms does not apply to just international development organizations: lately, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced much of the world’s workforce to work remotely which has further heightened the need for knowledge sharing and collaboration online. The need for ecosystems of tools and platforms that enable effective online collaboration has never been greater.

How do you choose the Online Collaboration Tools or Platforms for your Community?

There are lots of very popular and widely-used online tools and platforms which offer similar functionalities. But the choice of a tool or a platform does not simply involve comparing features. You need to consider carefully the readiness of the team or department, familiarity with the tool, and even resistance to the tool. You cannot simply select a tool and hope that people will adopt it; you cannot just “build it (the platform) and they will come.” As with all change management, you need to check with others, and warn, prepare, and include people in the decision. Understanding what you want to accomplish, members' motivation, and the collaboration goal that you’re trying to achieve will help you choose the best tool for the task. 

Below is a table which describes the online collaboration ecosystem of the WBG. Other organizations may have online collaboration ecosystems which include other platforms available on the market. 

Disclaimer: this article is not meant as an endorsement of any of the tools and platforms listed in this table.

Do you need a place to store and share your working files?	Cloud-based storage that connects you to your files in the cloud, so you can share them with others and access them from anywhere. Share content with internal and external colleagues Work on the same document from the browser for easier collaboration – no need to download/upload No VPN connection required Internal colleagues can sync to computer Ideal for: Your working files
Do you need to collaborate in an interactive, chat-based application, especially within a team/project environment?	A chat-based platform for high-frequency, informal collaboration “Like” a message, or “@mention” a colleague Share files, notes, wiki Make audio/video calls Files stored on “team” site on OneDrive, and can be synced under team name Create channels (conversations grouped by subject matter) Add external “guests” to your team Use Planner to assign tasks to  members Ideal for: Projects, rollouts, event planning
Do you want to socially engage and connect with others across the WBG?	An engagement tool that lets you connect with colleagues, learn best practices, share knowledge, and get feedback Tag, like, and promote ideas Promotes two-way conversations between management and staff (across geographic and hierarchical and to some extent, thematic boundaries) Personalized feed highlights new discussions and content Ideal for: Communities of practice, campaigns
Do you need to set up a "traditional" intranet site for all within the organization?	A "traditional" intranet site accessible to all within an organization  for sharing information and resources Share information and resources Add Viva Engage group to engage with your visitors for a more dynamic combination of formatted  information and interaction/discussion Store your documentation and resources in a highly structured environment Ideal for: Websites, extensive documentation and resource management
Do you want to engage and connect with others outside your organization?	A collaboration platform like C4I allows you to collaborate with external people and organizations around the world. C4I at the World Bank Group hosts a wide range of external social collaboration groups, Communities of Practice, and online knowledge-sharing spaces across the globe. The platform supports features such as discussion threads, blogs, events, resource sharing, and commenting. Ideal for: External Communities of Practice and global stakeholder engagement.

You are not restricted to using just one tool. In fact, you will often find that several tools used in combination are needed to achieve a Community’s goals. For example, a WBG staff might use a social platform like internal Viva Engage to raise awareness about a particular topic among his/her colleagues, while directing them to C4I to have an Online Discussion which can include practitioners beyond the WBG.