Communicate, Collaborate, and Share with Shareflow

If you ask me, e-mail is best used as a direct, linear conduit between two people. Add a third person and it gets messy. Throw in a whole team and the noise quickly overwhelms the signal. If you're looking for a better way to communicate and collaborate, try Shareflow, a site that lets groups of people collaborate on different projects in unique workspaces.

What does that mean? Well, Shareflow lets you create any number of flows - private, invitation-only forums where people can carry on threaded conversations about specific projects or topics. Flows also feature event scheduling, file sharing, maps, videos, and more.

You can interact with your flow directly on the Web site or e-mail messages to the flow instead, making it easy to post to a flow from your phone. On the other hand, there's no dedicated iPhone app for Shareflow (something I always tend to look for in an online service).

You can use Shareflow for free with an unlimited number of users, but you're limited to 5 flows and 25MB of online storage. There are several upgrade plans available, starting at $20/month for 5GB and 25 flows.

Shareflow looks like a pretty snazzy entry in the world of online collaboration services. Don't forget, though, about Wizehive, Collaber, and even Office Live Workspace.