You can guess pretty safely what the next big trend will be based on what Google is up to. Google recently purchased a company called Upstartle, the makers of a popular web-based, free word processing program known as Writely.
The concept of Writely is clever. Here’s the jist of it:
- Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time: Pick exactly who can access your documents.
- Edit your documents from anywhere: Nothing to download — your browser is all you need.
- Store your documents securely online: Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds.
- Easy to use:Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.
This could be very helpful for non-profits with volunteers and employees working different schedules at different locations. I know that it can be problem to have several people using and editing the same document. It is such a hassle to know who has the most up to date draft. I think that I will use this program for the Northshire Non-Profit Network in the near future for some of our projects.
There is a waiting list currently for a Writely account, but I think it will be worth the wait.
If you need something that is a bit more extensive for your document creation and editing, you can create your own wiki at jotspot. Jotspot is an easy way to creatively work together on a variety of projects. The web site says:
What can you do with our wiki?
Whether you’re at work or at home, you can use the JotSpot wiki.
The JotSpot wiki allows free-form collaboration, but you can also collaborate using structured applications from our application gallery.
- Create an intranet: Publish company information, such as news or employee guidelines. See an example.
- Project management: Schedule project deadlines, assign tasks, and define product specifications
- Document collaboration: Multiple users author documents with aid of version history and MS Word integration
- Coordinate a non-profit agency: Utilize event calendars, discussion forums, blogs and other apps
Ed Cyzewski: Author // Contemplative 