My all time favorite free items include software I have mentioned before, and thousands of others have mentioned. Why list again? Because I keep getting asked for my short list pics:
1. Instead of Microsoft Office, there is a completely compatible FREE version at OpenOffice.org that works exactly the same way and has millions of users.
2. My cheapest domains for websites or blogs were be purchased for $6.95 per year through www.1and1.com , a huge corporation with great service.
Google is the world’s largest FREE software developer.
You can get FREE programs as follows:
3. Blogger (www.blogger.com) will give you a free weblog. I use typepad and pay, but I like the layout better.
4. Google groups: (groups.google.com) you can create public or PRIVATE discussion groups. Teams can share thoughts on an idea that is only accessible by password. You can read, create and discuss policies, etc. without needing to be in the same place at the same time.
5. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) lets you put on one page all the blogs and news sites you want to read without surfing around for them each day. You can select news articles only on specific topics that you want to read and it will collect them from all over.
6. Picasa (picasa.google.com) will organize all your pictures on the web. If you have a team book of photos, you can arrange to have as many people as you want upload their pictures of events for you to have to draw on when making publications and powerpoints, etc. Password it and you can keep an archive of the organization that is permanent.
7. Google Calendar: (www.google.com/a) is one of the available options at Google Apps web. Every Team leader needs a calendar organizer, but this one allows you to blend any number of calendars for the whole staff or building use (vehicle use, etc). You can set up as many calendars, import the information from Outlook or start from scratch in minutes. Other Google apps are Google Docs (word processing online where a whole group can access each file and revise it, keeping every former revision), and dozens of other applications.