Collaborative Tech Tools

Send this page

CBI employs the following technologies to support and enhance effective communication and efficient collaborative processes. Contact us to determine which technology will meet your needs and to view/hear a demonstration.

CBI-Hosted Project Websites. For projects with modest budgets, we host a basic project website within our CBI website. Such project websites can include documentation from each meeting, meeting agendas, schedules, and directions, and other basic features.

Consensus Building Workspaces. For larger, longer-term projects, we provide custom CBI-developed and -hosted Consensus Building Workspaces, which allow private user groups, sophisticated commenting and document sharing, interactive polling, and more.

Externally-Hosted Collaboration Sites. For projects requiring documents with multiple authors and participants in remote location, we can create Google Project sites (or other wiki-style sites) to manage documents, keep track of background information, post To-Dos, schedules, and other items to keep a diverse and scattered project team on track.

Scheduling. We use web-based applications to schedule meetings for multiple participants.

Online Polling. We employ a variety of tools to poll or survey participants formally or informally during a process. We gather and organize qualitative and quantitative data from stakeholders, ranging in number from a handful to hundreds. We use this data to focus agenda topics for upcoming meetings or to provide for broad input during an assessment process.

Real-Time Keypad Polling. We can provide real-time polling in major meetings and workshops through the use of keypad polling. This provides a tested, accurate, and sophisticated way for meeting participants to provide detailed, quantitative feedback on key issues, ideas, and proposals. Keypads allow for quality control, provide everyone with the technology to participate, and can analyze complex data instantly in a variety of formats.

Virtual Meetings. Through WebEx, we can set up and facilitate on-line, virtual meetings. Features include video conferencing, call-in numbers for audio, real-time Powerpoint presentations and application sharing, on-line polling, and facilitator feedback.

Award-winning Podcasts. We record, edit, and create podcasts to capture diverse voices from across a range of views on an issue or problem. The podcast is professionally sound-edited, and can provide a concise, compelling tool to convey in a fair and non-partisan way a range of voices on an issue. This tool often accompanies more traditional issues assessments, prepared ultimately in writing.

  • Example: A CBI-produced podcast brought a real-life touch to a river restoration project by giving river stakeholders a history and narrative of the ecology, uses, and shared memories of the watershed. This additional insight helped stakeholdes understand each other and collaborate more successfully.
For more information about CBI services and areas of expertise, please contact us online or call (617) 492-1414.