When it comes to brainstorming sessions, white boards and sticky notes just won't cut it anymore. With so many employees working remotely, either from home or from a different city, company-brainstorming sessions are taking an entirely different turn. Edistorm is an application that's hoping to capitalize on that, by giving businesses a way to tap into the collective brainpower of employees, both near and far.
Start brainstorming online by creating a new "Storm"—the name for an Edistorm project page. Type in a name for the project, add a goal or description, and start inviting collaborators. Privacy levels let you decide whether to make your Storm open to the public or visible only to those employees who've been invited to take part. Once you're on your Storm page, you'll see a white wall and a virtual stack of sticky notes on the left. Anyone you've invited to participate can type an idea on a sticky note and place it on the wall wherever they want. Notes can be moved and organized in an endless number of ways, or grouped by color to better illustrate whatever point it is you're trying to make. Because Edistorm operates in real time, you will immediately see whenever another users adds a sticky or makes adjustments to the wall.
One thing that really helps Edistorm stand out from the pack of collaboration tools currently on the market are its Idea Bots, which track the ideas you and your colleagues are posting on your wall and add suggestions or recommendations at the bottom of the screen. Suggestions can be included on your Storm wall, or given a "thumbs down" to be deleted completely. Overall, Edistorm is an excellent application that gives companies a way to hold interactive brainstorming meetings with employees who are located around the world.