Zoho Writer - Thing # 18

I'm testing Zoho writer by writing my blog post in a document first, then I'm going to export it to Blogger. wish me luck. :)

I used Google Docs for the first time two months ago, and really was impressed by the portability concept. (Isn't that surprising, that portability aparently is my biggest concern, and yet I'm practically a luddite...? Can you imagine how important portability is to people who actually USE personal electronics to keep track of their lives??) Anyway, portability between home and work has become really important to me because I don't have a printer at home, or a flash drive. If I need to print something out at a public computer, I can always email it to myself, but the new Outlook web access is really clunky and moves really slowly on some computers. What I need is an easily accessible central place to put a document so I can sneak in and print, quick as the wind, and then go on my merry way. Could Zoho Writer and Google Docs be the answer?? maybe.

For small libraries and campuses without a robust shared-server system, I can see these tools helping students and staff thrive, and really expand the possibilities for people who don't have laptops or ftp software installed. (I guess the "free!" aspect is a really close second to the "portable!" aspect.)

I do have some concerns (which I'm sure Zoho Writer and Google Docs wish to dismiss) about privacy, stability of their servers, and continued availability of a free service. It would be awfully unfortunate to build a project in this attractive, robust environment and then lose it!

Overall, I'm positive this will come in handy in the future, and if I were on a reference desk in a public library, I would encourage people to try it. It's surprising what counts as 2.0!