ConceptShare

Moving from private beta to public beta today is ProofHQ. London-based ProofHQ is a collaborative editing suite that allows groups of people to provide feedback on a design or object. The service is similar to one of my favorite Web services, ConceptShare.

The concept behind ProofHQ is simple. You upload a design, graphic or object you want feedback on. Next you set who can participate in providing feedback and post the editing function on your blog or email participants to enter the ProofHQ site. Josh Lowensohn at CNET notes that, "what makes it a standout among some of the competition is its capability to integrate with other tools or workflows you might be used to." Josh points to 37Signals' Basecamp project management service as one example. ConceptShare partnered with Corel and is integrated with some of their tools.

My suggestion to ProofHQ (same as my suggestion to ConceptShare last year) is to get out there and partner with creative agencies across the world. So many teams are spread out today and a tool like this could make revisions and design finalization quicker. While it's not as sexy as a blog embed, the agency market is where the real money is.

Here's how ProofHQ defines their business plan, "ProofHQ offers tiered monthly and annual pricing plans based on the number of end users, number of proofs, and storage per month – including a free account for users who need only five proofs per month. Anyone can sign up today for a 14-day free trial for any sized plan." I think five proofs a month is too many. As I've written about numerous times, if you offer enough for most users for free, they will never upgrade and pay.

Coming off their big country win in the online video usage today, Canadian design collaboration tool ConceptShare has launched an API. Co-founder Scott Brooks explains why they created an API, "We want to enable our clients large and small to leverage our platform to further improve their projects. The API will allow users to customize the ConceptShare experience for their organizations, teams and clients."

Looks like the first usage was from a design agency who wanted customers to submit files through a web form directly into a new ConceptShare workspace.

ConceptShare is making two major announcements today. A five-year partnership with Corel and V2 of the ConceptShare service.

V2 Release

This is the first major upgrade since the critically acclaimed web application launched in January, 2007. The project management interface has been redesigned to be simpler and cleaner, resulting in less clicks and a smoother workflow. Project workspaces have more vertical screen area, and a redesigned layout that is now completely customizable. The new user interface improvements are part of major framework upgrade that will allow ConceptShare to make modifications and improvements even faster in the future.

"Engagement from our community in the form of feedback, feature requests and recommending our product to colleagues has been key to our growth." said Will Pate, Community Evangelist for ConceptShare. "This is just the beginning of how we will engage our customers and partners."

Corel Partnership

CorelDRAWConceptShare.com is the first release in the five-year partnership between Corel and ConceptShare. It's a perfect marriage between the two companies though there would be another graphics software company that might have given ConceptShare even more visibility. I might be mistaken but I believe this is Corel's first entry into the Web space. Both companies are Canadian.

"We are enthusiastic about our partnership with Corel. The CorelDRAW version of ConceptShare™ provides us immediate exposure to millions of CorelDRAW users worldwide and will help to accelerate our growth into international markets,” said Bernie Aho, Product Manager and Co-Founder, ConceptShare. “This strategic partnership demonstrates a new model for relationships between web application providers and desktop software companies.”

I recently wrote about the value that Marshall brought to SplashCast Media. Today another "star free agent" has been picked up. This time it's Will Pate joining ConceptShare. ConceptShare is based up there in the northern regions of Canada (you know the area where it snows all year) and Will is a canuck as well.

Will has previously worked with Flock and a number of other startups and currently co-hosts commandN with Amber MacArthur.

I think ConceptShare co-founder Scott Brooks made a great pick-up with Will as he has a large contact base and can help ConceptShare get some more visibility. Check out our review of ConceptShare from earlier this year.

Another great pickup was Forrester's acquisition of Jeremiah Owyang. I believe we will see this trend continue as big co's scoop up bloggers who have great reputations along with strong contact lists.

Jake reviewed ConceptShare back in December. ConceptShare is an online design sharing, mark-up and review tool. I wish this tool would have been available 10 years ago. I know that I could have used it on practically any web site I created. The days of scratching on a printout, drawing in photoshop or sending impossible to understand emails back and forth are over. To find out more about ConceptShare, I spoke with Bernie Aho and Scott Brooks, two of the three ConceptShare co-founders.

ConceptShare is a really cool app, that is run by flash. If you're a web designer, you're going to love this one. It allows you to collaborate with your clients, or anyone that you invite into your 'WorkSpace'. You can import any image, or website, and everyone involved can make notes, draw, point lines, and chat all in the same window. It's quite amazing.

This app has got to be one of the most useful web apps that I've seen in the last year. It brings you the opportunity to collaborate, in an easy environment. I've really enjoyed the time that I've had to play with ConceptShare, and I think that a lot of people are going to benefit, and save a lot of time, when presenting ideas to clients, or even just drafting ideas.