Web portals, instant messaging and web communities: new tools for online collaboration

Web portals are nowadays very popular. This type of web sites let users to share information, request advice or help in a particular field, and furthermore allow them to create and extend sites content. Combined with instant messaging systems, used to send messages or files instantaneously to a user or a group of users, and with various kinds of chat programs, which connect two or more individuals simulating a conversation, it is now possible to create "web communities". In this paper we present the opensource tools used to create the "Grid Support Community" of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics in Italy.