Thing #19

I did not have to look far down the list to find my winner: #1 in collaborative writing and word processing, Google Docs! It really is amazing what you can do online, and even for free, which so recently was limited to what you had on the computer. I remember my parents working on an old computer with Windows 3.1 and the first versions of Word; now, I can co-write a paper or make a spreadsheet with friends in real-time, online, with just a few clicks.

It goes anywhere you do with an internet connection, and obviously has many useful academic purposes. For students old enough, it allows them a fast and easy and FREE way to write papers or work on group projects. For me, it is a useful way to stay on the same page with my coworkers and even friends on a variety of projects.

Thing #18

I actually read a news story about this recently... the rumor is that the next version of MS Office will be web-based, and that they will eventually be migrating to an all-web format. Maybe the situation was that you can get a "free" web version of Office that has ads and reduced features in it, and the desire to get more features and get rid of the ads will inspire people to buy the real version. But why do that when you can get them already??

I am more familiar with Google overall, so I prefer Google docs, but it looks like OpenOffice is more in-depth. Obviously some disadvantages are that if you lose internet you lose access to the online materials. But I think there is major advantages, in that 1) things are migrating to open-source and online anyway, and 2) open-source and free beats paying a whole lot of money for something you'll just have to pay to upgrade in a year or two anyway!