WebJunction

Office tools have been around almost as long as personal computers, starting way back with VisiCalc spreadsheets on Apple IIs. Until recently, these applications were available on the machine in front of the user, which made it difficult to change workspaces without picking up and moving the computer.

Recently, however, technology has caught up with need in the form of Web 2.0 applications. The core of Web 2.0 is a two-way pipe, making it possible for clever programmers to duplicate an old (and very useful) computing model using nothing more than a web browser.

Client-Server computing was invented to help improve the portability of people's office environments. Using this computing model, it became possible to have computers scattered across a large operation while still letting users carry their own work from machine to machine. This was done by storing all of the users' work and the work environment itself on a central computer (the server), while the local computer (the client) handled the details of displaying the work environment and interacting with the user.

The problem with this model was that it required companies (or libraries) to buy expensive specialized software and expensive specialized hardware to operate. It also seemed best to keep the client computers (the users' workstations) fairly standardized, which required companies to upgrade vast numbers of computers at the same time.

Web 2.0

Enter Web 2.0. Web 2.0 designers all work with a standardized software component that is available in most web browsers today. This standardized component runs well on many different kinds of computers, almost completely eliminating the need for computer or software standardization. Web 2.0 applications use this standard software component (technically, an XMLHttpRequest object) to send and receive data between the user's computer, whatever it may be, and the web server that is hosting the application. These web objects can do very nearly anything on the user's computer, enabling great power (and some peril, too).

Concrete Examples

All of this background may or may not be interesting, but concrete examples of the technology in action will show the real power of these ideas. We're going to look at a few Web Application services that you may be able to put to use right away, for yourselves or your patrons.

Writely

The first application to look at is called Writely (http://www.writely.com/). Writely offers a pretty nice word processing environment, similar to WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, or OpenOffice. If you go there and sign up (for free), you can create and revise documents. As of March 9, 2006, Writely was acquired by Google. Writely does have some features that set it apart (for now!) from the other suites that are mentioned below:

Writely lets you and others edit your documents collaboratively, and lets you see the revision history for the document. Writely lets you publish your documents to your blog (hosted by Blogger or another one of the major blog sites, or your own self-hosted blog site if you have one) with the push of a button.

ThinkFree Office

Next up is ThinkFree Office (http://www.thinkfree.com/), a more-or-less complete Microsoft Office-compatible suite. This one is Java based, rather than being an AJAX application, so you'll need to be sure that your Java environment is reasonably up-to-date. ThinkFree offers word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software, plus 30MB of storage space on their server. You have the option of saving your documents in Microsoft formats, XML or HTML for great portability, SVG (the XML standard for graphics), PDF or the old (and also very portable) comma-delimited and plain text formats.

gOffice

gOffice (http://www.gOffice.com/) is similar to ThinkFree office, but is completely AJAX driven and so does not need Java to run. You have the option of saving your documents as HTML or PDF. Word processing, presentations, desktop publishing for greeting cards, fliers, newsletters and so on, and spreadsheets are available. The desktop publishing abilities are not completely finished at this time.

Writeboard

Writeboard (http://www.writeboard.com/) is a simple word-processing application that can be used as a collaborative tool. Individual edits can be flagged, and different versions of the editing can be removed. Documents can be saved as text or as HTML, and can be emailed.

Caveats and Notes

All of these have some features in common. All of them are currently in beta testing, meaning that some features may change in the future, and some current features may not work right. All of them are currently available for free, and have a simple signup process that anyone can use. All of them provide some amount of storage space, usually more than a floppy disk's worth. All of them except the ThinkFree Office suite are AJAX, making them usable in most current web browsers – Internet Explorer and Firefox are the most commonly available, but Opera and Macintosh Safari should also work well. ThinkFree Office does require a current version of Java to run, which does limit its portability – many places, libraries included, limit the ability to run Java applications.

Providing access to these online offices to your patrons could provide benefits to the library as well. Not having to maintain software on library computers could be a large gain in terms of money and time. Not having to buy and install office software in the first place would be another big win.  Note that the time has not yet come when many are choosing to leave installed software behind.  It's probably premature to uninstall Microsoft Office (or Open Office, if you'd rather not pay licensing fees).  But getting yourself, and your patrons, familiar with the benefits of online offerings now can help you make informed planning and purchasing decisions down the road, as these tools become more widely used.

There are some real and potential downsides to these online applications as well.  Because they are internet based, they are susceptible to anything that affects the internet connection (e.g., a downed connection, downed servers, DoS attacks, etc.).  They may also be somewhat bandwidth-intensive, because of the two-way communication between your computers and the server computers. The web browser software does need to be kept up-to-date (although this is usually easier to maintain). Computer security may be an increased issue – it is not clear yet how vulnerable AJAX is to Internet viruses, trojans and worms. And, of course, all of these applications are currently in beta testing – it isn't clear which of them will be around in a year. The nice thing is, the library doesn't have to pick and choose – it is possible to give access to all of them and let the patrons choose which ones suit their needs.

Security

Security is another issue. Although all of these application sites have prominent privacy policies and use encrypted communication between your web browser and their server for security, it is not clear how secure your documents are on their servers. Some questions that might need to be answered include:

• Are my files encrypted while in storage?
• Who has access to the unencrypted versions of my files?
• Are backup copies of my files kept? Are those backup copies encrypted or unencrypted?
• Where is the server located?
• What laws govern access to my files by law enforcement or other government agencies?
• Who owns the company?

References

If you like the look of these applications, there are many more out there. Some resources that you can use to find them include: A Complete List of Web 2.0 Products and Services hosted by Listible.com, which is itself a Web 2.0 application, and A Complete List of Web 2.0 Applications which is a blog entry that lists a fair number of sites. ZDNet online magazine also has a list at Web Office Suite: best of breed products.

If you are still wondering "Why would I be interested in online office software?", a new article at "Why you need a Web Office" offers some additional thinking on the subject.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.