Loading ...If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a big Microsoft fan. It’s easy as a Computer Science student to be critical of Microsoft but they have done a number of good things. The argument is really does the good outweigh the bad. I think we can all agree on that much.
That said, sometimes, I’m not objective at all and simply want to fight for the guy who everyone bashes. I try to remain objective as much as possible and recently I’ve been using Google Documents. I still prefer Microsoft Office (yes, I’ve used OpenOffice) because I find it much easier to get things done, but there are some cool things that Google does.
1. Collaboration
I’m working on a business plan for my Technology Entrepreneurship class with two other guys. We can concurrently edit a single document and see all the pieces while editing. Previously, I’ve used a wiki such as MediaWiki running on an old desktop converted to linux server but the editting environment in Google Docs is much richer.
2. Backup/History/Revisions
Google provides a nice mechanism for seeing who made edits when and rolling back any changes you might want to get rid of. I could go on but I’m tired, forgive me.
3. Chat while editing
For some reason not yet in Google Docs but really nice to have in Google Spreadsheets, you can chat with everyone editing the document. This is nice for asking questions about something someone just changed or what have you. Ideally, voice chat would be the best way to communicate about a document, but if you’re in a lab or library this might not be an option. Additionally, if you have low bandwidth, voice might not be an option.
For a few college students on the same network however, voice is a great option. The three of us get on Skype and chat while editing the business plan or one of us gives an overview of a financial model he just made and clarifies any assumptions. All three of us can discuss what we think the numbers should be while we all play around with them to see what the effects would look like. It’s really an incredibly fun way to work. One of my team members commented that he thinks this is the future of how people will work and I think he’s right to some degree.
Maybe it’s because we’re all computer geeks that we enjoy sitting in our own apartments at our own machines rather than meeting at a cafe with our laptops but it did feel somewhat like working in a corporate environment. Everyone’s sitting at their own machine, yelling at each other or asking polite questions periodically. Right now we’re all located close to each other geographically but this summer we hope to spend some time working on the business even if we’re several hundred miles apart. I think the skype and google docs combo should work out nicely.
If you have a group project due sometime soon, work from home, or work with people in remote locations, I HIGHLY suggest you check out this combination and let me know what you think. Additionally feel free to post any comments about possible additions to the system.
-Ray
