One of the recent additions is Twitterbox, a Twitter-style collaboration tool that allows users to share information and files. The service is not only free but can also be installed on an organisation’s own servers. This is also what sets itself apart from comparative services like Basecamp.

While Basecamp is not really useful if you do not pay for it as the free service is tightly limited applications like Twitterbox, TwitAlbums for private media sharing, or Quora for quick surveys of the twitterverse could provide substantial added value and flexibility.

The question is if a project management tool built around 140-character messages and data makes sense in the first place. Open source applications hold value in themselves simply because they are free. And their interlinking with other (free) services (“mash-ups”) makes them only more useful specifically in critical situations where data is scarce and can be transmitted easily using ubiquitous technology like mobile phones. In that case short message length would make sense as it preserves valuable bandwidth and keeps costs down.

A project management tool could come in here to coordinate ad-hoc events like flash-mobs, demonstrations with relative ease provided the application is simple enough to be accessed via regular phone-like devices. From this perspective applications like Twitterbox could add long sought-after structure to efforts to coordinate collaborative actions of many while on the move.