Online productivity

One of the debates I had with myself as I was choosing a new computer was what type of productivity suite to buy. I knew that I wanted a Mac, (from which I am writing right now, so exciting), but I wasn't sure if I could do with the iWork suite or if I should stick with what I knew and buy Office for Mac. The latter is what I did, only because I like being able to access all of my old documents and papers etcetera, and I didn't want to run into any problems with submitting work in the future. 

I did consider, however, the availability of such tools online. I have used Google's web tools on a variety of occasions for a variety of reasons, primarily to back up documents when I wasn't sure where I'd need to access them. It also provides a way to open attachments sent to my gmail account without downloading the file. Not only that, but I was also able to create collaborative spreadsheets and documents with friends who are far away, and share them without hassle. 

My main problem with Google Docs is that they don't always allow me the formatting I wanted. This often became a problem when trying to upload a file and then access to print elsewhere, as I often do. I still appreciate what I can do with these tools, but I like having Office as a basis to work from on my computer, and it is also very comforting to know I can still do some work in the absence of an internet connection. I realize that is less and less of a problem today, but you never know when you need to write something while out in a out of network zone! (Pen and paper I guess...) 

 The other useful point that is indicated on the learning 2.0 website is the ability of the online tools to publish in html so that they can be accessed as a webpage rather than some sort of attachment. I need to keep this in mind as my online work continues. 

Contributing to wikis

The learning 2.0 website encourages users to learn to edit a wiki site for practice. The sandbox, or site for playing around, that they have set up was unavailable to me two years after the project originally initiated, so I instead went over to Wikipedia to try editing a page there. 

I went through the editing tutorial that is available on their website and found it to be very user friendly. They definitely want to legitimize the information that users provide, and ask people to cite sources and reference any changes made to a page. Even if the historian in me may look at some of the sources and realize that they aren't that great to begin with, as a general internet peruser and quick fact looker-upper, I do like knowing that the information has a basis somewhere, and, if traced back far enough, is probably from a legitimate source. 

However, I am now excited to go into the Salamanca wiki page and either edit the section about the Plaza Mayor or write a new page for it. There's a place where I have plenty of information and sources! I could potentially edit wikipedia in two languages, although the page in Spanish is already quite good. 

What I like about Wikipedia and other open source sites such as this is how it allows people to be passionate about particular areas and then share it with the world. Or at least other similarly interested people. I was out to dinner last night with a friend of mine who edits a open source sports magazine online, and she was mentioning how even though the content is not her cup of tea, the people who contribute as well as those who run it are extremely dedicated to their interests and really utilize the source.