innoix

Remember Google Wave? We still do, and depending on who you ask, it was either a collaboration tool that was ahead of its time, or a complicated tool with no single defined purpose.

Co-Meeting borrows a lot of tricks from Google Wave, most notably the ability to have up to 30 people in one workspace at the same time, all typing and interacting with one another, updating documents, starting and answering comments and posts and threads, and in general just working together. As everyone talks, one click turns any posted comment into a to-do item or a progress update to an existing to-do. We can see people working on remote teams using the tool to stay in touch with each other and have separate conversations when a simple top-to-bottom chat won’t do. The service even keeps track of where you left a conversation so you can get up to speed quickly when you return.

It’s important to note that while Co-Meeting is inspired by Google Wave, it doesn’t dive as deep as Wave did, which allows it to keeps its focus squarely on improving meetings and group projects when your team or coworkers aren’t in the same room. If you’re a remote worker, freelancer with multiple clients, or a project manager who doesn’t want to drag everyone into yet another meeting, Co-Meeting is worth a look. Plus, it’s free, at least while it’s in public beta. Plus, if you’re still sore that Google Wave has gone read-only, Co-Meeting even allows you to import your waves so you can pick up where you left off.