Journal 7 Collaborative Documents

Collaborative documents are online applications that allow users to share and collaborate on the same document online. Collaborative documents share the same document with different users and each of the users can contribute to the document from anywhere they can get access to the internet instead of having to be in the same room or email and paste a document together. Some popular collaborative document applications are Googledocs, Yourdraft, Writewith, Zoho Writer and Whiteboard. All these applications share similarities and have their differences. In the discussion, the favorite application is Googledocs for its ease and usefulness of working away from work. Following the threads posted, most people seem to prefer Googledocs, especially since it has been recently updated with better features for organization. There is also a new application that stirred up much talk called Youfig.com. It is also a collaborative document that is ideal for student-student collaboration in class projects. However, from the discussions it requires an invite, which the person who introduced Youfig.com had extras of to send out to anyone that wanted one. Youfig.com has more to it than does Googledocs. Youfig.com appears in two screen: one is the actual document and the other is where you hold a discussion with those you are collaborating with. The editing abilities of collaborators are locked when someone if currently editing which can be unideal. But still the overall feeling of the discussion leads to favoring Googledocs.