Google Docs and Office Discussion Summary

As usual, I summarized our discussion on Google Docs, Zoho Docs, and MS Office here:

• Most people (if not all) like the idea of web based document editing and management.
• Many people do realize that their pros and cons clearly.
• I roughly categorized and counted your opinions, as shown in the following chart. Of the people who prefer Google Docs, 19 of them specifically prefer Google Docs over Zoho Docs while others did not try Zoho.

Some selected student comments:

• Overall, all three applications are very god useful in many ways. I'm glad that i know about all 3 for any work i may have to do in the future.
• Overall I like google docs better than Microsoft office especially for group projects and I prefer Microsoft office when working independently.
• One of the drawbacks of Google Docs is that it does not provide as many editing options as Microsoft Office.
• I think I'll keep using the Office products and if I need to share the file with someone I will upload it to Google Docs, but I don't plan on creating documents in Google Docs directly.
• Clearly having the ability to access files from anywhere is a very attractive quality, especially to an irresponsible student like myself that habitually leaves disk drives in every computer I stick them into.
• Ms office will, in my opinion, be phased out if not by consumer demand for a google doc like application, but an evolution of office software itself to a more web based program.
• I compare using Google Docs to using a Mac for the first time after using a PC all your life.
• (Zoho) seems like it is google docs on steroids.
• Based on my experience (and i have been a Microsoft user for Years) I like Zoho a lot, i think Zoho is very straight forward, not complicated, and you can also work offline.
• Base on my brief yet precise summary of Zoho Docs it’s rather easy to come to the conclusion that Zoho Docs out muscle Google Docs in terms of features and options. Zoho Docs is the ultimate online office application. I would like to encourage everyone to take a look at Zoho Docs if you haven’t yet. I promise you will not regret it.

Second Life Discussion Summary

A not-so-accurate summary of our Second Life discussion in myRobinson.

Number of people who have:

• positive views: 17
• neutral views: 38
• negative views: 56

It seems that many people are pretty negative on Second Life. Not to my surprise; but as a well educated person, remember this when evaluating a new born something: think rationally, and think outside the box. Do not hype it, yet do not let your difficult experience limit your imagination and critical thinking. Look beyond just Second Life and broaden the view.

Gatner has a nice broad view on many emerging technologies, using its Hype Cycle model. It nicely picture where virtual world is. Read more here:

• http://www.muvedesign.com/the-virtual-worlds-hype-cycle-for-2009/
• http://my.gartner.com/it/content/1101800/1101817/august12_hype_cycle_final_jfenn.pdf
• http://jackzheng.net/cubicleh/hype/

I selected some representative student quotes; some of them are very insightful:

• "Second life is still in infancy stage, and dealing with growing pains. My pain with Second life is the complexity of navigating the vast world of 3D. This application is not user friendly and does not appeal to the masses."
• "We are currently witnessing the baby steps of virtual worlds, but once a lot of problems with them are sorted out and people become more aware of these virtual worlds, there is a great chance that these social network sites will dominate the Internet in the future."
• "Second Life was interesting for me, I'd never heard of it prior to doing this assignment and I was fairly impressed. I wouldn't spend much time using it, personally, but it is definitely worth checking out."
• "I don't like Second Life ... But that doesn't mean its necessarily bad. Everyone should try it at least once to get their own idea."
• "Despite my negative experience I do believe that virtual worlds can serve a purpose. It feeds people's curiosity as it allows them to go anywhere and experience anything they want."
• "Also just a thought, it could be the real world for terminally ill or disabled patients that cant move."
• "I found my experience with Second Life to be quite disappointing. The website boasts in big orange letters "Fast, Free and Easy," which I found to be very far from the truth."
• "It is very confusing and hard for people starting out. Not to mention it is extremely lagged so its hard to do things anyways. And nothing is easy in this program not even developing and dressing your avatar."
• "... the problems that we are facing is that people have become incapable of socializing in person preferring to socialize over the Internet."
• "The major problems that I see is that your identity is hidden and you would never know who you are talking to."