Finally....Collaboration Software

If you participated in the original Learn 2.0, you may vaguely remember the pre and post survey that we did for the course. At the time, one of the survey items dealt with collaboration software. Anyone remember that? The focus of the Learn series has always been collaboration (and exploration and fun) but at the time, we didn’t really have “collaboration software”, so the course never covered it. Like all things in life, that has changed and several companies have created free, web-based, office suite applications that allow you to truly collaborate with anyone in the world. (remember Information is Open Source from L-2.1?) This month, we are going to take a look at some new web based software and try to do some collaboration.

Not that long ago, documents and computers were focused on the individual user. Microsoft had a very public dream of one PC with Windows for every person in the world. The documents that you created (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) were stored either on your PC or the network. If you were on a computer that you shared with others, you still had your own account and you could use office applications to create your documents. If someone else needed access to your docs, you had to print it out and sneaker-net it to them (geek speak for walking it over to them). Later, you could email it to the person, or if you were technically savy, share the document on the network. Many, many, MANY versions of Learn 2.0 were emailed around the lib for different people to see and comment on. Rashal McEldry edited most of Learn 2.0 and 2.1 and we would use different colored text to mark our revisions. The process worked, but it was less than effective. Just the act of emailing it back and forth consumed hard drive space on our email servers and bandwidth in the network as the docs were sent back and forth.

Now there is a better way: New Ways to Collaborate
(the narator speaks very fast, but the content is very good)

Since Google owns Blogspot and you just happen to have a blog on Blogspot....your blogspot username and password will get you started on Google Docs! Isn't it cool when things come together? We aren't going to get into the nitty gritty of using Google Docs, that is beyond the scope and capabilities of this course. If you are interested, EXPLORE!!! Find an exploration partner and see what you can do, you might surprise yourself! If you get frustrated, (I know that you aren't AFRAID to try!) check with the CRC to see if they offer a class. Here are some Youtube video resources to get you started:

Google Docs Community

How to Use Google Docs


eXplorers – lets collaborate on a document! I have been frustrated with Blogger in that the Follow feature doesn't allow me to back track to your blog. I can see who is following me, but I can't follow you! To fix this, I have created a spreadsheet for you to copy and paste your blog URL into, so I can follow you too. If you have the follower’s widget in your blog, you will soon see my smiling avatar in your followers box.

New Directions: Click the link to open Google Docs. Click the "edit this page" link and add your data. You can cut/copy and paste your blog URL into the cell if you don't want to type it out. Google Docs Spreadsheet

Zoho - Zoho is a G-Docs competitor. Zoho seems to have more applications available and may offer you more capability. You can also log into Zoho with your Google account - sneaky or what?? Take a look~Zoho


Adventurers - you are probably already veteran users of G-Docs, which is cool. The spread sheet above was created with Zoho Sheets - another open source, web based suite of colaboration tools. While I personally don't have a preference for Zoho or G-Docs, it is always good to know both. You can create a Zoho account by using your Blogger account, just click the Google link at the bottom of the Sign In box. What other web-based free applications are you using? Are you using G-docs on your mobile phone or ipod Touch?