Thing 9: Collaboration

I think that Zoho writer and Google Docs are interesting and if a person is collaborating with another on a document I think these are really good tools to have. Unfortunately I was only able to use Google Docs to look at the public document but I did make an account with Zoho writer so that I could see how it is set up. Of the two I found Zoho writer to be more professional looking and in some cases easier to use. However, both do have some of the similar activities. Like for both a person can edit a document and look at revisions. What I like about Google Docs is that it is easy to use because I am already familiar with its layout. It has a similar to Google Calendar and the Google Reader which I have extensively used. Also, when you look at revisions you can compare changes that have happened like it will show you what was added and what was erased. Also, you were able to create not just a document but a spreadsheet and a presentation as well. What I didn't like about Goggle Docs is that after every few minutes it would have to load and if you were just reading the document you would then have to find your spot all over again and this became very annoying. However, this could also be a problem that Zoho writer has as I was never able to look at the public document with Zoho writer I was only able to look at a document that I had created myself and no one else was contributing to. Finally, I didn't like how comments were shown in Google Docs because the only way to distinguish what was a comment and what was the actually document was a dotted box that went around the comments. This makes the document look sloppy and hard to read but if you read it in preview you can actually see the printed document.

Zoho writer is easier because everything that you can do is on one page you don't have to switch from edit into insert in order to insert a comment like Google Docs is laid out. Also, in Zoho writer a person can revert a document to an earlier version or just look at earlier versions and what changes were made. Also, when a person adds comments a comment sign is added and to actually read the comments one has to click on the bubble. I like this because it leaves the document relativity whole. Also, a person can work on more that one document at a time which is harder to do on Google Docs. Finally, Zoho writer doesn't have spreadsheets or presentation but it does have different templates like a resume, speech outline, movie ticket, meeting schedule, etc...

So, in conclusion dependent on your needs Google Docs and Zoho writer are both a great way to collaborate on projects. I can see these collaborative programs being useful in the library especially is a person is creating a policy and what's input from librarian throughout their region they could ask them just to add comments about different aspects of the policy and in Zoho writer a person is able to look at just the comments that people leave as apposed to clicking on each on in the document. So, in many different ways if your library includes many branches this is a way in which all people can collaborate to make their library system better.

Thing 8.2: Share

Thing 8 was actually rather fun. I choose to use Picture Trail in order to organize your pictures into what is called Flicks. At first I thought you had to upload pictures right away from your desktop in order to use the slide show, but when I went to use the slide show I found that you could upload your pictures from Myspace or Flickr. However, I wasn't able to get in connect with Myspace were all my pictures were located so I was happy I had downloaded some onto the desktop which I had uploaded onto Picture Trail. The pictures that I choose to use were the one that I took when I went to Berlin, Germany. The trip was a lot of fun and I hope you have fun watching my slide show. I also briefly looked at some of the other sharing activities like Thumbstacks and Zoho where you can make your own slide show which with the versatility of then having this slide show be accessible for all computers would have really helped when I was in school and making power point presentations and hoping that where I had saved it would then upload onto this new computer. It was all very stressful. Also, these slide show creators can be useful for when a person is teaching a class especially if it is a web conference. So, these programs that share are interesting but time consuming.