Dear Cozimo Team,

This year Advanced Graphics Applications provided again Design Management services for MuchMusic Video Awards 2010′ stages.

On behalf of 25 members from 17 companies, working together for last 6 months, I would like to thank you for the excellent on-line collaboration experience!

Sunday (June 20, 2010) broadcast of the 2010 MuchMusic Video Awards goes down in history as the most-watched broadcast of any program ever on MuchMusic. Ten thousand fans descended on MuchMusic HQ to get up-close-and-personal with homegrown A-list stars Justin Bieber and Drake, as well as co-host Miley Cyrus and scores of other artists and celebs.

Andre Wojaczek

Recently we introduced a few new features into Cozimo to make it easier to integrate a collaboration folder into other project management or groupware applications such as Basecamp and Clarizen. While most project management applications have functionality for attaching and distributing files to project messages, milestones or tasks, few of them offer their team members the capabilities for viewing the files online, let alone annotating them. So project team members typically have to fall back to downloading and marking up the files and then uploading the markups for another cycle of review and distribution. By linking to a Cozimo collaboration folder instead of attaching files, you can significantly streamline the review process for visual media files. Team members have the convenience of reviewing files online and seeing and responding immediately to comments and notes made by other team members. You also have the option to review files together in live review sessions and unlike web conferencing all the annotations are persistent and can be reviewed at any time as the project progresses.

Using Cozimo in conjunction with a project management application is a straightforward process:

1. Create a Cozimo workgroup that includes the people who have access to the project.
2. When you have a set of files that you want reviewed, create a collaboration folder and upload the files (reorder them if desired).
3. Click on the “Collaborate” tab of the folder to access the first file and then click on “Link” to display the URL



4. Copy it and then paste it into the message, task or milestone of your project management application.

When the specified team members receive notification of the new message, they click on the Cozimo link and the Cozimo workspace will open in a new window. They can use the thumbnails to navigate through the files that have been uploaded and leave their comments and markups.

Reviews can also be conducted in real-time by clicking on “Start presentation”. Team members can return at any time to review all the annotations that have been made by themselves and others.

On this Earth Day, with Mt. Eyjafjallajökull still actively billowing its disruptive ash, we’re given yet another opportunity to contemplate man’s relative impotence in the face of nature’s power. By volcanic standards, this one is really considered something of a minor event. I like to think of it as something of a karmic reminder from Mother Earth that we cannot take our position on this planet for granted or become too overconfident that our technological solutions alone can save us. So while the atmosphere got a short reprieve from the 344,000 tons of CO2 released every day through the European aviation, stranded travelers were also given the opportunity to think twice about the necessity of all these millions of flights we make every year. I was encouraged to see one frustrate traveler get the message in a recent New York Times post:

“Myself and 12 others from our company have been stuck in London since last Friday, we only came here for a two day workshop. Why do people fly across the Atlantic for one-day meetings or two-day workshops anyway? What an insane waste of jet fuel, time and effort, especially in an age of Internet and teleconferencing. Lots and lots of gratuitous long-distance air travel going on, which will likely be harshly re-examined when the (pardon the pun) dust has settled.”

We’re pleased to announce a new partnership with Clarizen – a robust, easy-to-use online project management platform that provides a complete suite of integrated tools for ensuring that your projects run efficiently and are aligned to meet your business objectives. Unlike most project management systems that tend to focus on the management aspects of a project, Clarizen offers a more “user-centric” workflow that benefits the individual team member and facilitates team collaboration – an approach that makes it particularly appealing for creative media projects involving many internal and external stakeholders.

Cozimo offers a natural extension to Clarizen’s centralized approach to content management by allowing users to review and provide feedback and collaborate directly on any rich media content that may be posted. This combination provides a complete and cost-effective solution for organizations looking for a more advanced and integrated approach to project management and digital content collaboration. Try the solution out for yourself by signing up for a free 30-day trial of Clarizen.

This month we’re talking with Boaz Ashkenazy, a founder and principal with Studio/216 located in Seattle, WA.

Hi Boaz. Why don’t you start out by telling me about Studio216?

We’re a visual communications company that specializes in “storytelling” -  creating 3D animations, video and renderings to help design and market capital construction projects. The kinds of clients we typically work with are architects, developers, municipalities that are in the process of starting capital or construction projects.

How did you get started using Cozimo?

Our work requires a lot of coordination with our clients.  In past years, we got by using email and using some web conferencing products but it was all very inefficient. We really needed a way to combine the asynchronous and synchronous feedback and organize the whole process. We also wanted our clients to have a convenient tool that could support drawing and note annotations. Sometime the notes can be more important that the scribbles and in the past it was sometimes difficult to make sense of a lot of the feedback we were getting. Having everyone use the drawing and note tools in Cozimo keeps it consistent and clear.

You mention asynchronous and synchronous collaboration. How do you find yourselves using Cozimo most often?

Well my goal would really be to work as asynchronously as possible. It’s a lot more time efficient to let the client review the content internally and add notes on their own time. But there are also times when we have to talk through something together and it’s important to be able to get online and point things out. I used to spend a lot of time marking things up and making notes after having conversations with clients. Cozimo is much more efficient because now we can just make and share the notes as we talk. And whether the clients leave notes on their own or we work together it’s all recorded in one central location that I can share with the staff.

Are you using Cozimo often?

Absolutely – every day. It’s an indispensable tool for us now.

How do your clients like it?

They’re very pleased. There’s a bit of a learning curve but not a steep one. Once they get going they love it.

From a business perspective, has Cozimo proven to be cost-effective for you?

I would say that Cozimo is saving me 2 to 3 hours a day that I use to spend just collecting, interpreting and organizing client feedback for the production staff. It’s a huge time savings for us.

You’ve been using Cozimo now for over a year now. How have you found the reliability and support?

It’s great. What’s nice is that when I have a question or a problem I can pick up the phone or Skype and speak directly with someone on the product team. That was especially helpful when we were getting started. But, it’s been a while now since I’ve had to have any support.