#18: Word processing without purchasing software?

And you can access your documents whereever you have Internet access??

And it's free?

Yes, Web 2.0 explorers, this is the new world in which we are living and working and playing.

Listen to this podcast [2:30] -->

Web-based word processing and spreadsheet applications are readily available and powerful collaboration tools. Users can create and share documents without having to transfer or email files to others; further, users need not be concerned about what software (and version) their collaborators have installed.

Online word processing tools like this do their best to have similar tool bars to the omnipresent MS Word. So, for the most part, using these tools are practically identical to the way you create, type, and edit documents using the Word program on your computer. Plus, these tools warehouse earlier versions of your document indicating time, date, and username -- just like on a wiki!

So why not use a wiki instead, you might ask?

Users can share access to documents/pages for simultaneous use, leaving their "mark" for what changes or additions were made when; nobody needs to transfer files; access can be public or private; accessibility is centralized in a single online location. Yes, all these are features common to both wikis and to online word processing applications. However, web-based word processing allows for printed documents and for file format options for sharing or storing elsewhere. These tools simulate programs normally installed as software applications for producing tangible documents - for printing physical manifestations of work completed electronically. While wiki pages can be printed just like any html documents, the formatting options for printing are rather limited.

And at the root, the genesis of these marvels of Web 2.0 distinguish them (even as the evolving uses of them may blur these distinctions). The creative intention behind wikis centered on collaborative databases of information - virtual collections of interlinked documents residing on the Internet. The intention of web-based applications like Google Docs and Zoho Writer centers on production, with the old fashioned physical sense that implies. In fact, another term for these applications is online productivity tools.

Discovery Resources

If you are curious to see "published" documents created by web-based word processors, take a look at these:

• created using Zoho Writer
• created using Google Docs

Each of the above are html pages so you cannot really get a sense of simulated word processing until you use the applications yourself. So, on to the part of the Thing where you do your own tinkering!

Discovery Exercise
As has been my habit, I'm offering options that vary depending on you deep you like plunging in the deep muddy of Web 2.0.

Just Curious Depth

1. You already have a Google account if you created your blog using Blogger, so you're halfway there! Visit Google Docs (or from a Google search page, click more and select Documents).
2. Sign in with your gmail account name.
3. Create a document - or a spreadsheet, if you're more of an Excel aficionado.
4. Publish your document on the web or to your blog. Note: If you create a spreadsheet, you can only publish to the web.
5. If publishing to your blog, edit your post to add something about when or why you might use this instead of posting from your blog initially. If you publishing to the web, provide a link to your document in a blog post and let us know what you think of online productivity tools like this.
   

Deep End

1. Follow the above steps 1 through 4.
2. Go to Zoho Writer to sign up for an account.
3. Create the same kind of document you created at Google Docs and publish it, too.
4. Open a second window or tab so you can be logged in at both Google and Zoho at the same time. Compare views of your revisions. Similarities, differences?
   
5. Create or edit a blog entry comparing Google and Zoho for word processing or for spreadsheets. Which do you prefer? Tell us why!

Really Deep End

1. Complete the above Deep End tasks.
2. Invite 23Things (@gcmail.maricopa.edu) to collaborate on a document you've created - or invite a 23Things @ GCC buddy or any friend to collaboratively work on your document. Note: your collaborator will also need an account with the tool you use; otherwise, access will be read only (not read/write).
   

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BTW: the first draft of this blog entry was created in Zoho Writer. I "published" it to my blog (as a draft) having checked the options "With tags" and "Post as draft" - and it transformed the Zoho tags to coded links to Technorati. Amazing!

Technorati Tag: collaboration
N.B.: two-word terms don't work unless you run them together as one word -- even if you put quotation marks around a phrase, the code will only search for the first word. Fixing this is beyond my current html knowledge.

#17: Tee, hee, hee -- what wiki variety

Listen to our podcast [2:00]:

Wikipedia gets most of the media attention these days*, but in our explorations, we have found lots of other kinds of wikis, including the following:

• Wikibooks (a collection of open-content textbooks)


• WikiTexts (a different collection of open-content textbooks)


• The Flu Wiki and The Lostpedia (a genre of Fan wikis


• Nine Cool Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do With Wikipedia

GCC launched a wiki pilot last year. You can read it without an account. If you'd like to play around by editing or adding new material, let me know and I'll create an account for you. GCC's wiki uses a different piece of software, Confluence. If you explore enough different wiki sites, eventually you'll be able to recognize the different kinds of wiki software.

Discovery Activity

1. Explore the 23 Things wiki. This wiki has an editing password to reduce the amount of spam we have to deal with. It is learning2.0


2. Feel free to edit any page. That's the whole point of a wiki! You can add information, re-organize material that's there, change anything (especially if there's an error).


3. [Optional] Create a new wiki page in the 23 Things wiki.


4. Write a blog post about anything related to wikis. Share ways in which you think you could use a wiki for personal and professional activities.
   

Most wikis have some kind of notification mechanism that can alert you by email when a page has been changed. Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on notifications to set up an email alert. The RSS option is located on the bottom right of the page. (You know how to use that, right?)

Tags are important parts of wikis too. Use the [tiny, tiny] + sign on the bottom left of each page to add tags to each wiki page. You can add tags even when the author didn't.

* If you are interested in the controversy surrounding Wikipedia, we are building a collection of resources about Wikipedia itself in the GCC wiki. You can also read the Britannica Blog's Web 2.0 forum, although remember that they an interest in encylcopedias.

#16: Making collaboration easy with a wiki

Listen to this podcast [3:13]:

Two important features of Web 2.0 merge in this week’s thing: the read/write web and social tools. Blogs and Flickr make it possible for anyone to contribute to the web easily, and tools like tagging and social bookmarking help us leverage the wisdom of crowds, or at least winnow what we find. Now – hold on to your boots, folks – we’re going to examine a Web 2.0 application that combines all of this: the wiki. Don't be fooled by the strange, slightly silly-sounding name; this is a serious application that allows anyone to write, edit, or remove content on the web. It's quick and easy.

There are both free and buyable wikis, but all of them share four important capabilities:

• Anyone can add, edit or delete content. Sometimes you may need an account or a password in order to reduce the amount of spam.


• Tracking tools (often combined with RSS) help you keep up with changes.


• Reversion capabilities allow anyone read or return to previous versions of a page.


• Users can compose pages using simple editing tools. No HTML needed!
  

Discovery Resources
Because of their growing popularity, you can find lots of resources on the web about wikis. We've collected a few, but you can find more using any search engine.

1. Here's a video from Common Craft:

Click To Play

2. From EduCause, "7 things you should know about Wikis," a simple 2-page handout in portable document format.

3. Read Jay Rosen's statement/manifesto published a year ago, "The People Formerly Known as the Audience."

Discovery Activities

We created a wiki for 23 Things several weeks ago; some of you may have found it linked on the left side of our 23 Things blog. (This wiki uses pbwiki, a free site on the web.)

1. Take the PBWiki Tour to learn how PBWiki works.


2. Explore this PBWiki Video Gallery of PBWiki features


3. Write a blog post about what you've learned about the use of wikis.