Create, organise and collaborate on tasks – all in one place!

TU coLAB is one of these new tools. Based on Confluence, it provides a workspace for teams and communities where knowledge and collaboration meet – across organisational units. TU employees can create a central source of information and knowledge base and work on it together. Information only needs to be entered once and kept up to date. This information can also be found and displayed at various points in the system by means of the TU coLAB networked structure.

TU coLAB can also make project collaboration easier – the flexible working environment allows the entire team to be involved without initiating a flood of e-mails. Tasks can be noted in meeting notes and forwarded to the people responsible for actioning them straight away. You can use templates and customise them, so that you don't have to keep reinventing the wheel. Consistency across teams is also achieved as a by-product. Documents can be developed together and elements of text can be discussed using the comment function. Anyone using the blog feature will keep the team up to date with announcements and the latest information.

All changes are saved and can be tracked via a change history for each page, so no ideas are lost. The only thing to worry about is if you press the wrong button!

Digitalization project that works like a laboratory

If you have already worked with the TUwiki, you will already be familiar with how to use Confluence. Both the TUwiki and the TU coLAB are based on this – albeit to varying degrees.

The TUwiki is what you need if you want to work with TU employees in their own organisational unit within TUnet. For the technicians amongst you, high availability is also ensured.

The name 'TU coLAB' is derived from the terms 'collaboration' and 'lab'. It is the construction of a collaboration platform as part of the digitalization strategy. 'Construction' here also means that you can and should expect a certain 'laboratory feel' to development – including availability according to the best-effort principle (again for the technicians amongst you). We test new application scenarios and look into how to make digital knowledge sharing even easier across OUs; software enhancements and operational concepts are tested. Content is created on digital transformation, knowledge bases, communities and project collaboration.

The TU coLAB can also be accessed outside TUnet, for example from home. Pages may be restricted for specific groups of people, or, like a website, can be made public. For 'internal' pages, all members of TU Wien can log in with their TU password; other universities will soon be able to log in via aconet. In future, social login (e.g. Google, LinkedIn, GitHub) may also be considered. An access model is also in progress, so that you can send invitations to the relevant department, as in TUWEL.

The .digital office keeps a close eye on the development and structure of the TU coLAB and can support you in getting started with digital collaboration. Michaela Dereani, opens an external URL in a new window has been part of the team since November. She was involved in successfully building a platform based on the same software at Johannes Kepler University in Linz. Her particular concern is the provision of support: the intention is to expand the support tools to include a user community, training courses, guides and videos.

Want to get involved?

So, have we aroused your curiosity? Pilot scenarios with individual target groups are currently being tested. If you have any ideas on how you would like to use the TU coLAB, please contact the .digital office (digitaloffice@tuwien.ac.at).

Further information and contact details

• TU coLAB:  https://colab.tuwien.ac.at