Analysis of Web 2.0 Tools - Google Docs

Google Docs is a collaborative suite of word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications that are shared in real-time. Each of the application uses the standardized menu and toolbars to minimize the learning curve for the users. Google Docs provides some standard templates such as Resumes, Cover Letters, Expenses, Loan Calculators, Flipbooks and Presentation Design. Of course the user can create a document, spreadsheet or presentation from scratch.

The sharing feature allows the initial creator to invite others as collaborators or viewers. The originator can organize the documents into subfolders. The documents are safe from local hard drive and power outages. Also, the documents can be access from any Internet connection and exported to standard file formats of DOC, XLS, CSV, ODS, ODT, PDF, RTF and HTML.

Viewing access is controlled by who is allowed to collaborate and view selected documents. Additionally, the documents can be published as a web page, posted to a blog, or shared only within the established group(s). This does not account for internal breaches within the Google organization.

The navigation between documents is as simple as selecting another tab in the browser in my case Firefox 3.0.1. The following images below display each of the suite applications.

Figure 1: Google Docs startup page.

Figure 2: Document application.

Figure 3: Spreadsheet application.

Figure 4: Presentation application.

I encouraged all of the capstone teams to employ Google Docs and Groups collaboration applications as well as Google’s gmail to keep all of the projects data, information and knowledge in central repository for ease of sharing and access. My only concern is the security of files on a third party server(s) which are subject to attacks 24x7x365 worldwide. The assessment of the risks involved to the benefits received must be weighted on project-by-project basis. I do not envision corporations or the Department of Defense (DOD) sharing their trade secrets via this security limited medium.

References

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour2.html
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour3.html
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour4.html
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour5.html
http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour6.html