Open Source Collaboration: Project Management Tools and Video Conferencing

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In order to share project files, schedules, and communicate remotely, companies rely on project management tools and video conferencing applications. Like office suites, there are multiple open source alternatives to project management tools like Basecamp and Teamwork Projects, or video conferencing applications like Zoom and Teams.

Due to the web-base nature of collaborative project management and video conferencing, nearly every option will come down to two options. The "free" option for these software packages will require a lot from the end-user. You will need to set up a server to run the software and provide access for the members of your team. This should be no issue for your average IT department, but it could be a big project for the average computer user. The other option is to pay for a browser based package where the software is hosted by the developer's servers. Paid options will require little more than creating an account and logging in. One additional benefit to the paid options will be increased customer support should you run into any issues.

If you are interested in checking out some of the options there are a few popular choices. For project management OpenProjects and MyCollab are popular choices. Each has a free option (OpenProjects free option is only available for Linux) and a paid tier. OpenProjects starts at about $430 a year for five users with an additional fee if you require professional installation, and MyCollab starts at $390 a year for 10 users. For video conferencing, Jitsi and BigBlueButton are two of the big open source players. Jitsi is available to use for free on mobile platforms while the desktop version is only available for Linux and requires setting up your own servers. BigBlueButton is only available for installation on a Linux base server, though they do provide a list of companies who can host a BigBlueButton server for you.

These are only a few of the available options to highlight the availability of open source project management and video conferencing software. There are plenty of paid choices if you want the benefits of open source software without the technical requirements of setting up your own server, and just as many (if not more) free options that will require you to setup your own server. If you are thinking of getting a new project management or video conferencing platform for you business or team make sure to check out the variety of open source options, you just might find something that fits your need better than the well-known proprietary options. 

 

 Links:

https://www.openproject.org/

https://mycollab.com/

https://jitsi.org/

https://bigbluebutton.org/

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