A Cool "Web 2.0" Tool

I meant to add this to the last post, but it was already getting a little long, and the post before that was a mini-book. :)

As we have been tracking the list for our Team 100, we have realized that some of our team members' friends have been a little shy about sending an email to the pastor they have never met. However, they haven't been shy about sending that same email to their friend.

A simple way to for us to keep track of those names without a ton of double emails has been to use the online word processor called writely.

According to their website (and my experience), here's some of what you can do with writely:

·	Share documents instantly & collaborate real-time.
	Pick exactly who can access your documents.
·	Edit your documents from anywhere.
	Nothing to download -- your browser is all you need.
·	Store your documents securely online.
	Offsite storage plus data backup every 10 seconds.
·	Easy to use.
	Clean, uncluttered screens with a familiar, desktop feel.

Back to me:

It's like a "write board" on steroids.

I've used it in a number of ways so far, and it is very cool.

I uploaded a document from "Microsoft Word" and even added pictures and it worked beautifully. For our Team 100 list, I invited some team members to "collaborate" and now when they have someone to add to the list, they just go to that page in writely and add it themselves. No need for an email. One document in one place. I was working in writely the other day, and noticed that my lovely wife, Leona was there working on the same document at the same time. Pretty fun.

Writely is now a part of Google, so reliability isn't a major concern. You can read about it and follow the blog here: Writely.blogspot.com

I kind of like having the world wide web as my "company network" and extra external drive. :)

And yes, it's free.

Yes, you have to have access to the web to access the files, but you can also download them and take them with you if you're planning to go camping with your laptop in the mountains. But that would be kind of sad, anyway, wouldn't it? Oh, the possibilities...

Update: Terry Storch has mentioned a similar online word processing program called ajaxwrite. Haven't seen or used it but it could be another alternative if you're looking for options.
Update 2: D'oh! Apparently, Writely has "closed off new registrations" until they have completed the move to Google. Sorry for the teaser, but I still recommend that you get on the list and try it out. Thanks Terry, for the info.