Tools for coordinating "to do" lists between remote teams?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

I've let myself be volunteered as one of the co-chairs for the STC 
Region 1 conference, which will be held in 2005 in Montreal. We're 
currently in the initial planning stages, and just finishing off the 
task of forming committees for each of the various functions (e.g., 
programming).

We're looking for a tool that lets us accomplish the kinds of things 
one can accomplish with management software such as Microsoft Project: 
list all the tasks assigned to each committee, and their completion 
dates. (Being able to define and manage dependencies between tasks 
would be helpful, but isn't essential.)

The tool should also let each committee chair update their part of the 
to-do list, similar to the way that Macromedia Contribute lets multiple 
contributors keep a Web site up to date. In short, we'd like to make 
our planning tool available over the Web so as to avoid volunteering 
one poor soul who would then become responsible for tracking the work 
of a dozen or so committees.

Last but not least, the tool should be either free or inexpensive, 
since our budget is quite tight during the early stages.

A "roll your own" solution might involve creating a simple Web site, 
with pages for each committee to show our progress. We'd send each 
chair their task list in HTML format, they'd update it as they complete 
each task, they'd send it to our poor overworked volunteer, then that 
person would upload it to the Web site so that we have a continuously 
updated picture of what's done and what has yet to be done. Indeed, 
that's probably what we'll do if we don't find a more elegant solution. 
But I'm really looking for something more elegant and less kludgy if 
it's available. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to?

All suggestions welcome!

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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