The digital workplace is mainly focused on collaboration. With more and more teams working remotely, the need for innovative software in this area is greater than ever. The available, open source solutions are in no way inferior to the commercial ones – on the contrary.

Open source projects are inherently about creativity and collaboration. Collaborating to create software may seem a bit “meta,” but the results are impressive, as the following eight open-source collaboration tools show.

We’ve rounded up eight open source projects that have everything you need to drive collaboration across your teams, whether they’re distributed or hybrid teams.

Yitsi

Remote working and video calls have been an integral part of our work world since the pandemic. Jitsi is an open source project that provides both the browser-side code and the server-side bridge to set up your own conversations without depending on Zoom or Google Meet. You can run everything on your own hardware or support the project by signing up for the Jitsi service.

Zulip

Many teams need to be able to meet both real-time and asynchronously. In that case, Zulip could be your preferred messaging platform. Zulip, an open-source alternative to Slack, gives you control over the code. In addition, custom apps are available for all major smartphone and desktop platforms.

Most important

This self-hosted messaging tool supports team messaging but is specifically designed for software development. In addition to a vibrant community, the project also stands out for its collection of software development scripts with special features such as checklists and coding retrospectives. Mattermost is also available as a web application and as a mobile tool.

cyn.in

Projects that require a “shared space” can contact Cyn-in. The Community Edition provides data sharing features such as a wiki and shared file storage. The release also offers advanced tracking tools that prevent employees from stepping on each other’s toes by blocking content and tracking access. Additional functions such as voice and search functions complete the offer.

kolab

When it comes to team management, you can hardly ignore Kolab. The open source tool organizes milestones, tracks projects, and monitors individual team members as everyone works toward a common goal. Kolab also offers team blogging, project documentation, and group discussions features.

NextCloud

The NextCloud team has rounded up some of the best open source email, chat and calendar collaboration projects. These components are packaged in a stable distribution that anyone can install at home or in the office. The backend remains in-house at all times.

Group office

Creating documents, slideshows or spreadsheets is the lifeblood of many office workers. Group Office is a groupware platform that supports these basic tasks as well as many other important office management tasks. Features include timesheets, billing, and customer relationship management. The basics are supported in the community edition, but the company also offers professional services and custom development options.

GitLab

Developers are familiar with version control systems such as Git. They use them to track code and record version changes. GitLab is an alternative to GitHub that makes collaboration and code management easier for developers. Particularly suitable for DevOps teams, this tool includes security management and DevOps capabilities in a DevOps pipeline. The hosted version is paid, a community edition is available for local operation. (FM)

This post is based on an article from our US sister publication Network World.