Hi Jeremy,

I'm partial to the Vyew browser based workspace. It's worked well for me a few times - there are free and paid accounts. Nice rich sharing features but of course participants need to be literate. You don't need to prep the machine other than requiring Macromedia Flash player and Java

Opposite in architecture and costing is Microsoft Groove - it's a rich desktop peer to peer app courtesy of Ray Ozzie. There used to be a free limited but useful featured edition but I guess Ballmer's had a chat with Ray, so now you can only buy Groove as a retail package which installs on a machine. Still, it's rich, powerful and distributes / replicates documents on a peer to peer basis.

Vyew looks quite interesting - I'll definitely try it.

I've tried Groove but I don't really get it. I think the lack of version control is the real downer, as is the lack of real-time updates (instead, it uses synchronization).

Basecamp
Have you had a look at base camp. It looks like a good project management tool. This allows project team members and clients to collaborate on the project.
The free version is limited to one active project. Pricing start at $12(USD) up to $149 per month. I personallly have not used but have heard good reviews.

Instead of paying for WebEx, I use the free Yugma service- it has all the key features and can connect Macs/PCs/Linux with no problem.

The last time I used Groove, it worked like this. If you put files into Groove, it would poll other peer connected machines. As long as one source machine was on and another machine without the file turned on, Groove would copy the missing or new file over. Version control would be manual.

On the other hand, Groove carries out Instant Messaging via Text and Audio, as well as collaborative whiteboarding, I remember even simulatenous collaborative typing in Word, as well as plugins for mind mapping, project management.

But for me, it's a dead horse for small business as Microsoft pushes it into paid only service when the product hasn't had enough champions outside of targeted corporates. And targeted corporates are Control Freaks - Groove is too easy going and open for that - Sharepoint Server would be a better fit for those kinda controlled environments.

Yugma does look like a good option. To get shared app/desktops, and meeting scheduling, you have to pay - but only $10/month for up to 10 attendees.

It uses Java, but also installs a driver - I'm guessing you'll need an Admin account for this. That could be a problem in corporate environments where the IT Nazis like to control such things themselves.

Yup I've used BaseCamp a bit. It turns out to not quite suit our needs, but our project management needs are kinda complex.

I think I'd put this in the "Project Management" rather than "Collaboration Software" category however - although I'm not sure I have a rigorous definition of either...