Since our shows in May, I’ve been helping a number of new customers implement Cozimo within larger organizations. While each company has had its own particular issues to deal with, I thought I’d list some of the recommendations I find myself making most often:

Account Setup – Most businesses opt to start out with our “Plus” plan that includes a customized “branded” login page and unique URL. This URL can be used in your web page as a private “client login” extranet (for an example see www.tangram3ds.com - “Client Area”). The URL is http://username.cozimo.com, so I recommend using your web or email domain name as the username of your Cozimo company account. People in your organization, however, can use whatever usernames you or they choose.

Cozimo Administrator – It’s a good idea to designate only one or two people to be in charge of administering the company account and setting up workgroups. When a new project comes online, the administrator creates the required workgroup and adds the project staff members. Those staff members can then take over the day-to-day maintenance – adding new people and folders throughout the course of the project.

Adding Workgroup Members – There are two ways: you can send them invitations and let them set up their own accounts, or you can set up the accounts for them. Most people find the latter approach easier – especially when dealing with external clients. In any event, you should let people know in advance of your intention to use Cozimo and follow up to make sure their invitation or new account emails don’t get filtered out as spam.

New workgroup members are automatically placed into a contact list for the company account so adding them to subsequent workgroups takes just a few clicks.

Pilot Project – To give you the chance to explore the full functionality of Cozimo and to learn how it can best integrate with your general project workflow, I recommend starting out with a single pilot project. Once you get this project underway and feel comfortable with the process, it will be much easier to roll it out on a wider scale (and if experience is any indication, once people see it in action, that won’t take long).

Stay in Touch – As I mentioned above, every company has their own particular issues to deal with and we want to make sure that you get the most out of Cozimo. So please feel free to contact us regarding any questions you have. We’re happy to help you get started and we’re always interested to hear new ideas that can make Cozimo even better for you as we move forward.

When it was first introduced, the iPhone immediately intrigued us as a potential platform for collaborating on rich media. With its larger screen size, support for Safari (the “real web” as Apple puts it) and touch screen interface, it seemed like it would be the ideal convenience for creative people on the move. Now with faster Internet access of the new version, the device is even more compelling.

Unfortunately, our initial enthusiasm for the iPhone was somewhat dampened by the lack of Flash support which forms an important component of our collaborative interface (not quite the “real web”). Depending on who you listen to, this omission is simply a temporary limitation of the platform/software (the party line) or else it’s a strategic move on the part of Steve Jobs to thwart the wide adoption of the Flash format as mobile standard in favor of their own solutions.

In any event, we’ve always made the effort with Cozimo to be technology agnostic and so we continue undeterred with our efforts to develop a unique collaborative mobile solution. We only use Flash to collaborate and for multi-file upload so most of Cozimo worked out of the box. As a second step, it is now possible to review images together with their annotations and notes (which are displayed in a format better suited to the smaller screen size). This means that you can now review the feedback you receive while on the go and also respond using the built in messaging system. Moving forward we will next introduce functionality for uploading images from the iPhone (perfect for dealing with on-site problems) as well as provide basic annotation tools so you can collaborate in real-time with your team members.

Text Annotation

The new Text tool lets you add text directly to the image. This is useful for shorter comments that you want to draw attention to. You can still use the Note tool for longer comments or for providing the opportunity for response. To add text, select the “T” icon in the Tool palette (or use the T shortcut), click the mouse on the image where you want to begin your text and type your text. You can use the enter/return key to add multiple lines. The text takes the color, opacity and size parameters from the Tool palette. And, like in the note and chat messages, phrases that look like web addresses are automatically converted to web links.

Color Picker and Custom Color Selection

Now you can choose a specific color from the image you are reviewing to make your annotations. To select a color click on the eyedropper icon in the Tool palette and drag your mouse over the image. Once you find the desired color, click the mouse to add it to your palette. You can also set a specific color by expanding the color palette (click “color”) and typing a hexadecimal color number in the input field provided.