Chatter.com - A 'File Sharing' platform worth talking about
By Kimberlin To | @kimberlintoe
Let's say that Gmail.com and Facebook.com got a little crazy one night at a Spring Break Mixer then nine months later ... they had a child - it's possible. Since a lot of people would talk about that infamous one night stand, the happy parents decide to call their little one Chatter.com. Say what you will but Chatter.com is a File Sharing platform worth talking about.
Chatter.com HQ is San Francisco, and allows companies to create their own free private social network. The social network platform also lets co-workers interact with one another for work purposes. The end purpose is to make your company's communication efforts more effective and efficient. Talker beware: Chatter.com is only open to people with a business email address, so not just anyone can join.
Beyond the basic functionality, Chatter.com also encourages collaboration, brainstorming, and information sharing across companies, including with co-workers who are working from home and prefer a dress code which includes their favorite robe and bunny slippers. The only potential drawback to Chatter.com is that all users must have an email address with the company's domain name—meaning external contributors cannot be brought into the chats. This also cleans out the system making target audiences smaller in comparison to Facebook.
Chatter.com is helpful in a way that it lets co-workers share large files, which could alleviate clogging emails (although Gmail almost has unlimited space) and also avoids the potential problem of everyone not having the same version of a certain program and compatibility issues (Mac vs. PC, different Microsoft versions, etc.) Chatter.com can be used for sales presentations, projects, and a way for co-workers to work on things together in a secure manner. Think along the lines of Google’s file sharing system, Google Docs, which is accessible for anyone that has a Gmail account.
Chatter.com is essentially a 'work/play' collaboration that allows tasks to get done fast when it comes to file sharing and swapping presentations, projects and other content internally. But at the same time, it also allows staffers to share a bit of their personal lives with photos, videos, links, and status updates. So now we know what all the Chatter is about!