Hi Pete. Why don’t you start out by telling us about how Neoscape is using Cozimo?

Our primary use of Cozimo is to manage the review process of our deliverables. These include such items as 3d renderings, website designs, movies and videos we put together that incorporate 3D environments. We have two offices in Boston and New York so we use it between our two offices as well as outside of the office. If any of the creative directors are traveling they still have the ability to review the images and comments with the rest of the team.

Do a lot of people in your office use it?

Yes, quite a few. It’s really become a core tool for us. We use it now on nearly all of our projects.

How have the clients reacted to using it?

Very positive. Before we were mostly using email back and forth. The client would receive attachments from us, print them out, mark them up, scan them, and send them back. So using Cozimo is much easier for them.

Did you experience any problems getting started with Cozimo?

Actually, it turned out to be a very smooth process. It’s very intuitive. The tools are similar to a lot of the applications people use. Even for our clients who don’t work with those types of programs, it was pretty self-evident how to use it.

Do you use the messaging system?

That’s a primary feature for us. Once we upload the files, we use the message board to notify the clients that the files are there along with any notes about those files that they need to be aware of. It’s great because while they’re looking through the images they can always just click on the message tab to see any specific instructions.

What do you feel is the greatest value that Cozimo brings to your business?

Its greatest value is its ability to keep the whole team up to date and on the same page. You have one repository where both the client and the production team can see all the feedback in one place. You don’t have 10 different emails with comments that are sent to different people and possibly lost or deleted. This is important because changes and development can easily be tracked within this one system. The client knows all his instructions are there, and I know they are going to be followed up on and that what we’re doing is correct. It really helps to avoid the type of errors that come from miscommunication. Since we’re always on a tight schedule, we just can’t afford to make those types of mistakes.

Have you been happy with the support you receive from us?

Oh yes, definitely. Whenever things have come up, you guys have responded very quickly and when we’ve made suggestions they’ve actually been implemented pretty quickly as well.

Thanks for the interview, Pete.

My pleasure.

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.

The latest enhancements to Cozimo relate to tracking item activity. From the file tab you can can click on actions>view history for any file and be shown a complete history of actions taken on that item since it was uploaded. The history will show the date, time and name of the person who performed the action. In addition, staff members in the workgroup will be notified by email automatically whenever a collaborator undertakes any activity on an item.

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.

Last week was our chance to get out from behind our computers for a while and get in front of customers by attending not one – but two back-to-back conferences in Boston.

The big event of the week was the annual convention of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). This major conference and tradeshow attracted over 15,000 architects from around the US who came to participate in continuing education and learn about the latest products and services. The theme this year was “We the People” with the focus on the responsibilities of architects to engage the public in designing for a more sustainable world. This is a theme close to our hearts and over the course of the three-day event we had the opportunity to speak with many participants about the benefits – both in productivity and sustainability – of using Cozimo for online review and collaboration. Most of the architects were extremely receptive with many expressing how they’ve been looking for exactly the type of service that Cozimo offers. For a profession as traditionally entrenched in paper as architecture, it’s an encouraging sign of progress.

In conjunction with AIA convention was VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference. This event was a far more intimate affair, attracting 350 specialists involved in design visualization for the architecture and building community. This group is ahead of the curve when it comes to using fully digital workflows and Cozimo is, in fact, already used by many of the leading firms who were present. In the more informal setting of this conference, we had a good opportunity to engage current and prospective customers in discussions regarding their needs and our priorities for future development. Kudos to Jeff Mottle and the crew at VisMasters for organizing a great event.

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.

Also, workgroup members are now added to your contact list so they can be easily added to new workgroups. And if one of your collaborators forgets their username or password a new function on the workgroup tab allows “staff” members to email it directly to them.

Last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a special Technology Day at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. The theme of the day was the “Teaching and Learning in Four Dimensions” and focused on the impact that emerging 3D prototyping and immersive technologies are having on the world of fashion and education. The Keynote speakers were W. James Au and Janine Hawkins. James gave an engaging presentation about the principles of Second Life (SL) and how the various user groups interact. Janine is the Editor of Second Style in SL and spoke more specifically about the top designers in SL and how many talented international, especially Japanese, designers are using it to gain recognition and promote their work. I was really struck by just how quickly and profoundly the virtual and real worlds of fashion are converging in the design, commercial and educational realms. You can find an excellent summary of the day’s events on Elaine Polvinen’s Virtual Fashion Technology blog.

The event was organized (exceptionally well, I may add) by Beth Harris, a professor of art history at FIT and a leading proponent of technological innovation in education. Beth originally discovered Cozimo through the web and contacted us to learn more. Since then we’ve developed a close relationship and Beth has shared her considerable experience and passion on the needs of educators. Dealing effectively with rich media is one of her primary concerns and she immediately jumped at the opportunity to experiment with Cozimo’s new WordPress plugin on smARThistory, a blog she maintains with her colleague Steven Zucker.

Thanks to Beth’s invitation, I had the opportunity to meet educators from FIT and other institutions who attended Technology Day. We’ll be setting up full Cozimo accounts for a number of courses in the upcoming semester and we’re looking forward to supporting other educational initiatives they are working on.

It’s interesting how many of the people we speak with about Cozimo start out by asking how we differ from a web conferencing application like Webex. Understandably, the idea that you can make a presentation online to a group of people with both applications sparks the comparison. But in reality the two applications are completely different beasts and it’s important to understand these differences when considering your collaboration requirements:

Broadcast Quality vs. High Quality

When web conferencing “broadcasts” a video screen capture of the presenter’s computer, there is typically a high degree of image compression required to optimize bandwidth. As a result the quality and resolution of the work you’re presenting can be severely degraded and there can be significant latency in presenting dynamic content such as video. With Cozimo everyone works directly from the content itself so you see the full resolution and quality of the media. PDF files maintain all vector information so that people can zoom into graphics and text without degradation. Videos are played back fully synchronized with frame accurate timing. The visual quality of the work is naturally of utmost importance for creative professionals and Cozimo provides presentation and online collaboration without having to compromise.

“Here and Now” vs. “Anytime, Anywhere”

Web conferencing is all about the “here and now”. It’s sufficient for collaborating on content as long as everyone is together in a session but once the session is over that’s it. With Cozimo you have the option to let people review and annotate your content at their convenience so you can review it at a later time. Or you can be online together with any number of team members for real-time review sessions. In addition, web-conferencing solutions often require the installation of specialized software that is not always supported on all platforms while Cozimo can be administered and accessed pretty much any web browser on any OS.

Persistence and Tracking

The annotations and drawings that are made during a web conference are not persistent so it’s hard for any team member to return and review any comments that were made. While it’s usually possible to record a video of a web-conference session, you can imagine how difficult it would be to go back and locate some specific comment or note at some future date. With Cozimo all the comments, drawings and messages are persistent and you can easily reference them at any time. In addition, you have a complete history available of the review activity for any item.

In the end, it really boils down to process. Today, people use a wide variety of means for distributing and collaborating on digital content: email, FTP, web conferencing, faxes, couriers, live meetings, etc. Using all these tools typically result in disjointed feedback and an awful lot of wasted time trying to keep it all circulating and organized. The real value of Cozimo is that, unlike the immediacy of a web conference, it provides a fully integrated suite of tools for supporting digital content review and collaboration throughout an ongoing design or production process.

This year’s VisMasters Design Modeling and Visualization Conference is being held in Boston, May 12-13, and we’re very pleased to be one of the sponsors this year. In fact, it was at DMVC two years ago that Randal Stevens and Jeff Mottle of VisMasters and CGarchitect.com generously gave us the opportunity to preview our alpha version of Cozimo to the attendees and many of our current customers go back to that event. So it will be great to get back and show everyone how far we’ve come since those early days.

DMVC is really the only conference of its kind in North America to specifically address the needs of architects, designers, artists and CG producers who are involved in 3D design visualization. It brings together some of the best speakers and instructors from around the world for two intensive days of sessions dealing with the latest technologies and techniques. Speaking from experience, it’s also a great informal event to meet and learn from a very passionate group of interesting people doing some incredible CG work. If you’re in the field, it’s well worth attending. And as sponsors we can save you $50 on the registration if you use the promo code - dmvc08cozimo - when registering. See you there!