Mar 03 2008
Web Office 101 @ the Circuit Rider Conference 2008
The Web Office 101 or How to streamline your digital life or everything you ever wanted to ask about web office tools but didn’t dare ask…..
Thanks to Laura Whitehead, Paul Henderson of Ruralnet and John Kenyon for making this session fun and interactive with examples of the web office tools they use.
What:
Web-based office tools allow you to create, collaborate and share documents through your web browser. Check out the free or low cost examples below:-
Google Docs
Google Calendar
Zoho
ThinkFree
MS Office Live
Zimbra (Yahoo!)
Webex
Some examples of commonly used web office tools:
Homepages or Start-pages:
This is the first page you see when firing up your web browser. Use iGoogle, Netvibes or Pageflakes to customise your homepage with feeds from your favourite news sites, calendar, blogs, weather, Flickr photos and more. These services are free and all you need to get started is an email address and a password.
Laura uses Netvibes (below) for her homepage.
Paul uses Pageflakes for his homepage.
Mobile Office:
Use Google Calendar to keep track of your busy life - work, kids and personal. You can share your calendar with friends and colleagues. Miles uses Google Mobile to send text message reminders to his phone - this helps him turn up on time, barring mishaps with trains, tubes and buses.
Documents and Spreadsheets:
Google Docs, Zoho and others offer a great way working collaboratively on the same document at the same time. John and Miles are fans of Google Docs, using it collaborate and share project documents, meeting minutes and agendas with colleagues.
RSS Feeds:
Subscribe to RSS feeds using Bloglines like Paul or Google Reader like Miles to get all the news from your favourite websites to delivered to you, wherever you are. You can also use Netvibes and Pageflakes to add feeds from your favourite sites to your homepage.
Bookmarks:
Do you have bookmarks of your favourite websites spread over home and work computers? Use del.icio.us or magnolia to save your favourite websites in one place, so you can access them from anywhere. Use tags to label websites you visit, making them easier to find and share. Check out the del.icio.us toolbar for Internet Explorer or Firefox web browsers. Miles uses del.icio.us.
Laura likes Magnolia (below) for discovering, sharing and discovering the best of the web!
Pros:
- Free or low cost
- Anywhere with computer and Internet
- Collaborate and share
Cons:
- Security
- Sustainability - will this service provider be around next year or get bought out?
- Lack of web accessibility features
What next?
- Figure out which tools can do which job for you – calendar, address book, docs, etc
- Experiment - sign up for a free account
- Check out the Web Office Database at IT Redux for a list of web office tools
- Blog it up – let us know how you got on!
Hi Miles - your session was really useful to all of us and great to read a round up of the tools here too! Great to have a useful and visual guide!
Thanks for the session - it was really good and I learned a lot as well as passing on a few things I hope. What comes across is that we all use different tools depending on our preferences, BUT the technology (RSS etc) means that it doesn’t matter, we’re not locked into any one platform - hardware or software, and we do have to use different tools and be in different places as there is no super-portal or one stop shop that does it all…although everyone’s Macs are still lovely.