Thing 20 - Thinkin' Free

Crikey. ThinkFree Office is really a posher (and therefore slower) remake of Google Docs. I like the look of this environment, with its fluffy white clouds in the background. Its compatability with existing Word files is neat, too. Now all I need is for it to work at the pace to which I have become accustomed.. i.e. without having to wait for 10 minutes. I'm still not all that keen to entrust confidential information to a cloud-friendly site, either. But this is (probably) the office of the future. Enjoy this rainbow of irises, discovered a few days ago. Yes, they are all irises.

Thing 19 - Google Docs

I haven't felt the urge to delve into 'Cloud Computing' until now, as Microsoft Office is installed on every machine I use. And I have access to the work department shared drive as well as my H:Drive via the internet. Google Docs makes it easy to create and share "documents" outside the department environment. What a good tool for collaboration. It's simple to use, so there's no need to procrastinate. The web-based application overcomes software compatability issues, and it's beautifully portable. But you might want to avoid adding confidential information, for obvious reasons.
Phew, we've had a scorching few days over here. Wonderful.

Thing 18 - Wikipeida wisteria

Wikipedia is fiendish, whatever its critics say. Yes, it may be less than 'reliable' as anyone can contribute, but who gets to define 'reliable' anyway? I love its accessibility. Where else could you check what a (90 Series) Toyota Starlet looks like and brush up on some facts about wisteria within a minute? Whatever you feel like checking is bound to be someone's pet subject, and may become yours. I'm addicted.

Thing 17 - It's a wiki, wiki world

Wikis can be, in my opinion, an effective collaboration tool. I say 'can be' because they seem to work best when they are used for a one purpose and when all collaborators agree to use the wiki (and only the wiki) for that purpose. A few years ago I joined a wiki that was set up for a small group of scattered librarians, whose common purpose was to create a coherent set of teaching sessions for a residential 'Teaching Evidence Based Medicine' week later on in the year. It was a successful substitute for email, because:

• The wiki had one purpose, which was defined and agreed before we started


• We agreed to use this as the only communication tool for this purpose - any parallel emailings on the topic were banned


• It was unintimidating to use - functional rather than flash


• It was simple to amend and update session plans and presentations, which cut down the temptation to procrastinate (I speak for myself)


• It was easy to see and re-order session plans and presentations, with instant access


• The alternative (email) would have resulted in overstuffed mailboxes, version mismatch, and general confusion.

Lurking

How interesting. I abandoned the blog for over a month and then I find that it's gained more followers. Thank you, new followers! OK, so I missed the ticket to the Award Ceremony (for those who completed their 23 Things by the deadline) but this project will be finished.

I lurked within Twitter at a conference recently. It was fun watching various tweets pop up during the sessions. Then, as usual, the Active Few decided to harumph about the lurkers lurking. Well, I don't know but I was struggling to follow the tweets whilst keeping up with the sessions. Finding Interesting Things to tweet as well as both of the above was quite beyond me. Something to aim for?