Tools Available in Qiqo Circles

QiqoChat is a tool for creating highly engaging events and for building vibrant online communities between those events.

Your members will be able to build relationships and efficiently share knowledge with their peers.

Each online community (circle) on QiqoChat is equipped with the following tools.  A screenshot of each is below.

  • Circles, Sub-Circles and Notifications
  • Live Events w/ Audio & Video Breakouts Rooms, Screensharing, & Collaborative Notes
  • The Gardens
  • Group/Community Calendar
  • Integrate with Google Calendar
  • Online Music / Dance Party
  • Schedule Coordination Tool
  • Peer-to-Peer Weekly Newsletter
  • Written Conversations
  • Questions and Recommendations
  • Collections
  • Articles
  • Project Management and Task Tracking
  • Uploaded Files
  • Integrate with Google Drive
  • Flashcards
  • Collaborative Notes
  • Job Board
  • Visual Problem Mapping

Circles, Sub-Circles, and Notifications

Groups on QiqoChat are called circles.  Each circle is equipped with all the collaborative tools below.  You can turn each tool on or off.  Circles have a half-dozen powerful subscription options such as “Notify me of new events/questions/conversations/jobs/etc”.  Members can set their notifications to immediate or to an hourly or daily digest.

Example email notification options for a QiqoChat circle.

Live Events w/ Audio & Video Breakout Rooms

Anyone in your circle can schedule a live event on any topic.  Each event has 10 online “breakout tables” and you can add more if you wish. Screensharing, whiteboards, and collaborative notes (see below) are available for each breakout table.  Participants can also share links with each other and preview files and websites during the event without leaving the page.

There are many ways to get creative with live events on QiqoChat.

This is the landing page for an event.
Each event has breakout rooms on the left.  Each breakout room can have multiple collaboration tools/documents on the right.  The button to join video is at the top.

The Gardens

Members of your community can visit your circle’s gardens, an aways-on space where members of your circle can connect by audio/video at that very moment.

You can customize the background images to be gardens or other meeting spaces that your members will like.

Group/Community Calendar

Members can add external events from outside of QiqoChat to the calendar for their circle.  Everyone who is subscribed to notifications about new events will be updated automatically.  This shared calendar is a key feature for helping people make sense of all the relevant events in their community.

Members can post events, even events that are happening on other websites.
Members can post events, even events that are happening on other websites.

Integrate with Google Calendar

Your members can have the events come directly to the calendar they use on a daily basis if you integrate your Qiqo Calendar with Google Calendar.  Email hello@qiqochat.com for assistance.

This is an example of the community calendar of the Liberating Structures Community of Practice on QiqoChat.

Online Music / Dance Party

Have your members join via Zoom to be together while they watch your video on YouTube Live.

This fun event was put together by the folks at 17ziele.de.  The music was amazing and the dance moves were pretty good too 🙂

Schedule Coordination Tool

Propose several times for important live events and find the times that are convenient for the greatest number of your members. You can view this tool by clicking “View Proposed Times” and then selecting the event in question on your circle’s calendar page.

Create an easy way
An easy way for people to indicate when they are available for live events.

Live Chat (typing)

With QiqoChat, we provide chat to our users so that they can engage in “collaboration escalation” which means that they can connect quickly and easily through chat and then they can arrange a video chat right there on the spot or even schedule a live audio/video event for another time. This feature is enabled by default, and can be used in the bottom right corner of every page in your circle.

Live typed chat is a fantastic way for people to connect quickly and then jump into a video chat or schedule one for later.
Live chat is a quick and easy way for members of a circle to get in touch at any time.

Peer-to-peer Weekly Newsletter

You can build an entire online community around this simple tool alone.  Anyone in a QiqoChat circle can share one announcement or link per week as part of the weekly newsletter.  By default, everyone in the circle receives the newsletter, and they can opt-out with one click.  Surprisingly, it’s hard to find a tool for a community generated newsletter anywhere else.

How to create a member-generated email newsletter for a circle on QiqoChat.
Members of your circle can each contribute one announcement to the weekly email newsletter.

Written Conversations: Live or Asynchronous

This is a powerful tool to help a small or large group of people communicate through written text. Members can schedule video chat events around any conversation (see below).  Conversations have highly customizable email notification options so that participants can choose exactly how they want to be updated.

Questions & Recommendations

Members can ask each other for recommendations such as “Best way to do X?”  Members can schedule video chat events around any question (see events below).

The QiqoChat recommendations tool is an effective way for a group to brainstorm.
The QiqoChat recommendations tool is an effective way for a group to brainstorm.

Collections

Members can gather a group of questions into a collection. New answers to any question in the collection will be visible immediately in the menu at the top of the page. Members can schedule video chat events around any collection (see events below).

Test Collection
Create collections to stay updated on specific items across QiqoChat.

Articles

Articles are a simple way to post a story or case study.  Other members can add a 1-click reaction (informative, amazing, etc) or they can engage each other in the comment section.

Members can write articles and stories in a standard blog format.
Members can write articles and stories in a standard blog format.

Project Management and Task Tracking

When members of your circle want to move from communication to collaboration, you’ll find that it’s easy to track all the tasks associated with a project.

First you write a short article about your project.  When you edit your article, look under “Collaboration” in the “Optional Features” section to enable the “Project Task List”.  This turns your article into the collaboration center for your project.

Any member of your project team create and edit tasks associated with this project.  You can assign a task to a specific individual, label it with high/medium/low priority, and mark whether it is in-progress or complete.

This is lightweight project management tool is ideal for projects in your community of practice where many people may want to help with a project, but they do not have time to learn a more complex project management tool like Asana or Trello.

screenshot of tracking project tasks on QiqoChat
Quickly and easily prioritize tasks, assign them to team members, and track completion.

Uploaded Files

Members of your circle can easily upload files to share with each other.  You can comment on files, and more importantly, you can include the direct link to the resource when you post a response using the other tools (Questions, Articles, Conversations, Notes, etc).

Screen Shot 2015-04-06 at 1.58.44 PM
Once participants share files, they can link to them when using any of the other tools on QiqoChat such as events and conversations.

Integrate with Google Drive

When your members search for files on Qiqo, they can also search Google Drive folders that you specify.  Email hello@qiqochat.com for assistance.

Flashcards

This is the easiest tool on QiqoChat and a fun way for members to exchange knowledge. Members of a circle can create and share flashcards with each other.  Each member can save their flashcards in different virtual piles to help with learning and studying.

Members of your group can create and share flashcards to help with peer-to-peer knowledge transfer.
Members of your group can create and share flashcards to help with peer-to-peer knowledge transfer.

Collaborative Notes

Many people can edit a simple text document at the same time.  All audio and video events have their own area for collaborative notes.

You can see everyone typing live in a different color.
You can see everyone typing live in a different color.

Job Board

Members can post new job opportunities that are relevant to others.

Share relevant job opportunities to others in your circle.

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Visual Problem Mapping

Your members can collaborate on mapping out a problem by identifying the stakeholders, outcomes, and the relationships between them.  Collaborating on a common way to see the problem is a powerful first step towards solving it.

Screen Shot 2016-01-03 at 7.42.01 PM
As this example map is getting built, you can start to see which entities (blue) affect which problems (red).

What’s Next?

Building tools for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing is what we love to do.

Have an idea for another app we should built into the platform?  Please do get in touch.

Want to start a free trial?  Here’s the link.

This page is part of the Qiqo User Guide.

7 thoughts on “Tools Available in Qiqo Circles

  1. Hi Lucas: Have been exploring your guides and videos. I’m so impressed with the sheer volume of features QQC offers. Blown away, actually. Marti, one of my co-hosts on the DD CAN would like me to set something up for a new group that I’m helping her start in ICA’s TOP Network that will also be focused on climate change. I can, of course, just use my zoom account, but can we go ahead and start a circle for her and use QQC on Feb. 9th at 1:30pm PST? There will probably just be about 8 to 10 people.

    Also, my own co-hosts on DD CAN are meeting with me this tuesday to decide which way to go. I’m pretty sure we will settle to change over. You and I should probably talk about this prior to Tuesday, so I can let them know how we will proceed, if we want to go this way. Do you have time Tuesday? Our call is 3pm MST. So, if we could talk prior to that, it would be great.

    1. Bonjour Bruno, merci d’avoir dit bonjour!
      Voici le lien vers un enregistrement vidéo d’une formation récente: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTsUh9jYEd8&t=2s
      Nous avons des formations gratuites ici: https://learn.qiqochat.com/events
      Je vous contacterai par e-mail.

      Hello Bruno, thank you for reaching out!
      Here is the link to a video recording of a recent training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTsUh9jYEd8&t=2s
      We have free trainings here: https://learn.qiqochat.com/events
      I will reach out to you by email.

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