low bandwidth collaboration

I am looking into the best way to work with organisations in Uganda - I aim to help groups to build websites and I am also looking at the best ways to collaborate with partner organisations in Uganda.

I can do HTML and CSS but have not got much experience and have limited time so hope to find web tools (preferably free!) that are suitable for various purposes including photo sharing, collaboration on a website, exchanging files etc.

They are generally using older computers on dial-up connections.

I am considering Wordpress for the website, at least to begin with. Does anyone know whether this is suitable for low bandwidth? Any other useful ideas would be very welcome! I may need to find free hosting for the website.

Are any of the photo hosting services better for slow computers?

Any advice would be very welcome.

Photo Sharing:

A quick "google" got me the following and more:

• http://www.myalbum.com/
• http://www.kodakgallery.com/Welcome.jsp
• http://www.flickr.com/
• http://www.dropshots.com/
• http://photobucket.com/
• http://atpic.com/
• http://fotoalbum.eu/
• http://www.snapfish.com/
• http://www.zooomr.com/

and more.

As to how they store and what is better for low-bandwidth connections - I am afraid you will have to test them yourself.
I am sure that if you approach a company like Kodak, they may well give you a load of space in addition to the usual and call it a sponsorship.

File Hosting:

The same with file-hosting:

• http://www.mediafire.com/
• http://www.fileden.com/
• http://myfreefilehosting.com/
• http://www.filefactory.com//

and more.

Websites:

If you can let me know how much webspace and bandwidth you think you will need by the end of the first year, maybe I can let you have some space on one of my servers.
(Maybe there are other viewers/members who will want to take up some of the slack?)

Please post:
Estimated projection by the end of April 2009 there should be:

• xx Websites
• needing yy MB each
• estimated bandwidth zz GB/month/site

Is there a way I can test using my normal computer (make it pretend to be a slow computer on dial-up?)
Thanks for the list of things to try, and for the webspace offer - I am afraid I can't really give a very good answer to the questions though. We are in early stages and some partners may already have websites, plus we have limited time and expertise so I would not expect to have more the 3 or 4 small websites online by this time next year (maybe less). One might be a 'private' website for collaboration purposes (unless I find a good service that we can all access) and others would be a few pages each to show the work of small community organisations in Uganda and enable people to contact them. It is unlikely that the websites would have heavy bandwidth demands - visitors would probably be people who have visited the area (south west Uganda, near the Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest) or are planning a visit, and maybe occasional potential funders.

You might want to try Sloppy (awful name I know!).