Online Productivity Tools

As to quote from the DCPL blog, online productivity tools are web-based applications that "provide users with the ability to create and share documents over the internet without the need of installed desktop applications." When I went to PLA Bootcamp in Cleveland for Strategic planning, each of us created an account with Google so that we could access Google Docs. This let us put all of our notes for the bootcamp into a single place. This allowed us to read each other's notes and give input where needed. Anytime I need to refer to those notes, especially with planning coming up in May, I can go to Google Docs at any time. This feature makes web-based applications invaluable because you can collaborate, write papers, or make those last minute files from anywhere. If my co-workers had to make one single document from all the notes, it would easy to make modifications to the documents and to email or print them.

I was very impressed with Zoho and Thinkfree. As they say, the office is on the Internet. I just signed on for thinkfree and you can create HTML documents, spreadsheets and powerpoint. The workspace is also called the dashboard. This can help you create projects and assign tasks and team members. This may be very helpful if we were working on a library wide project or for those on committees and we could put our notes and presentations all in one spot if we did not have a Staffdocs on the server. This could be used as a backup for your files if they aren't on some sort of outside hard drive. That's also the same with flickr or any site that let's you upload pictures. You need to backup everything, (which I am guilty of not doing), and this is a perfect way to do that.

As for the wiki, I really enjoy posting to the sandbox, and creating pages for others to enjoy. I like reading their posts and I feel like I get to know my co-workers a little better. Wiki would be great to do these lessons as well or some sort of web class where you posted to a wiki your responses. What will the web think of next?