Web Applications and Google

Abstract

Since the Xl1 windowing environment gives the user access to the Mac's terminal mode - not a good idea - NeoOffice may be a better choice for schools. o My favorite new program is EarthDesk 4 from Xeric Design, Ltd., which turns your desktop into a detailed and gorgeous satellite image of Earth. There are also tiny white dots on the map showing city lights at night, and the program shows accurate cloud cover information.

THE TIME may finally be here when it makes sense to consider using such applications as a word processor on the Web and not on your computer. I don't have a crystal ball handy, but I have a hunch that the future of computing is all about the network as the computer. Specifically, it will be about Web applications.

There are many advantages to using software on the Web and saving all of your work there. You don't have to install or update software; you don't have to carry your files with you; you can access your files from anywhere and use your own files on a computer that doesn't have the software that created them. Another advantage is that you don't have to back up your work since large network servers are pretty secure. Still another advantage is that anyone with an Internet connection and a browser can collaborate with you, and probably in real time.

Admittedly, there are a few disadvantages to using Web applications. At the moment. Web applications don't have nearly as many features or fancy bells and whistles as programs like those in MS Office. However, since most people don't need all the features of a program like MS Word, this might not be a problem. The second and obvious disadvantage is that, if you cannot get on the Internet, you cannot do your work. That is, unless you remember to take a copy of the files with you. A third, and perhaps very real disadvantage, is that it takes some time to get used to doing all your work virtually and trusting your precious files to a server in the sky.

I can say with some confidence that the time for Web-based applications may be here because this column is being written using "Docs and Spreadsheets," which is a part of Google Apps Premier (CiAI'). Docs and Spreadsheets is a program that runs within a Web browser. In other words, Docs and Spreadsheets comes to you from one of Google's servers, not from your hard drive or from a local server. The program even saves your work on a secure Google server. Google has bundled the following applications into the Premier suite: Docs and Spreadsheets, Gniail, Talk, Calendar, an RSS newsreader, and Home, which is a customi/able start-up page. The only productivity program missing from the suite of programs is a presentation program.

One of the nicest features of GAP is that you QUI customize your Google home page. You can, for example, have a list of all docs and spreadsheets from the last 30 days, the local weather, any number of news feeds from a variety of sources, a customized calendaring program, your e-mail, and several dozen other features. Another nice feature is that Google gives you 2 gigabytes of free online storage.

One drawback might be that Google is believed to "mine" or analyze everything that passes across its websites, and that applies particularly to your search habits. The company does this to obtain as much "business intelligence" as it can. With this information, Google can customize the advertisements you see. I could not find out whether Google also monitors the content of Docs and Spreadsheets, but the monitoring has never caused me a problem. Refer to the Google privacy statements for more information.

To use GAP, you need a compatible Web browser. On my Mac, neither Safari nor Opera would do, so I downloaded a recent copy of Firefox (version 2.0.0.3), which is available from www.mozilla.com. Using Firefox, I went to the Google Apps page at www. google.com/a. Google has an education version of GAP that is free and also comes with 2 gigabytes of storage, so 1 downloaded it. There is also a Premier version that costs $50 a year, which comes with 10 gigabytes of storage and 24-hour phone support. The Premier version would be a good investment lor schools, since Google essentially provides the help desk.

To use GAP, you must sign up for a Google account by giving Google your eirail address and selecting a password. Google then sends you an e-mail message, which you must open and answer in order to finali/.e your account. Once you have set up your account, you can go to your home page at Google and customize it. I added two of what Google calls "gadgets," a current moon phase picture and a daylight map that uses satellite imagery. As I mentioned, there are literally dozens of nifty gadgets. Admittedly, you can customize just about any Web browser with features like Google's gadgets, but you still won't have direct access to your documents, spreadsheets, and e-mail on the same browser home page.

Writing this column in Docs and Spreadsheets was easy, but initially I found it scary to save my work on a remote server: you never hear your local drive spin. Kappan editors want this column to be close to 1,600 words long, so I had to find out how to count words in the word-processing program. I would have guessed that this feature would be under the Edit menu, but it wasn't. So, I simply clicked on the help button and found that "count words" was under the File menu, which struck me as strange. In Docs and Spreadsheets, there are three ways to save your work, and it is critical that you know how each one works. If you want to save it on a Google server, you use the Save button on the main page. If you want to save to your local drive, you use the File: Save As menu choice. Here is where it gets a bit quirky. It you use the usual keystrokes, Command-S, you save the Firefox page, which is useless. It took me a while to quit using this shortcut.

One of the host features of Docs and Spreadsheets is the Collaborate option. At the bottom of the Docs and Spreadsheets page is a button labeled "Add Collaborators.' Collaborators can be given read-only access to your work or Rill access. You simply enter an e-mail address to send your collaborators a link to your document. One of our faculty members who teaches a technology in education course has had his students using Docs and Spreadsheets for several terms now. He simply instructs the students to add him as a collaborator when they want to turn in a paper. He claims this is much handier than the "drop box" in Blackboard.

One thing that is potentially confusing to new users of Docs and Spreadsheets is the context-sensitive menus. The program has tabs such as File and Edit. Push the File tab, and the icons that appear below it deal only with those options on the File menu. The same thing is true for Edit and other tabs. This produces a very clean and simple user interface, but new users may initially wonder what happened to all the other menu items. Personally, I like the interface.

Out of curiosity, I did a Google search to find out what companies were piloting Google Apps. The following companies have pilots under way: General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Prudential, and L'Oréal. Two universities also have pilots under way: Arizona State University and Northwestern. I do not know how large these pilots are or what the outcomes will be. Maybe it's time for schools to give GAP a try.

One of Google's "gadgets" for your home page is an add-on for the browser tool bar called "StumbleUpon." Of course, you can bypass Google and go directly to www. stumbleupon.com. Stumble is a social networking site that lets users join other people with similar interests. When Stumble users conduct a Web search and find an interesting or valuable page, they rate the page with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Web sites marked with a thumbs-up are then shared with other users with similar interests. When you are "stumbling," your searches will result in a "hit" only it another user has given the page a thumbs-up. According to recent tech news sources, Stumble already has more than two million users. To get an idea of what the tech press is saying about Stumble or to read various reviews of the site, go to its main page and click on the "Press" button.

TECH NOTES

o When 1 wrote the column titled "The Other Office," which was about OpenOffke, I didn't reali/e that there is a very similar alternative to Microsoft Office called NeoOffice. The benefit of NeoOffice is that you do not need to download and install the Xl 1 windowing software on a Mac to use it. Since the Xl1 windowing environment gives the user access to the Mac's terminal mode - not a good idea - NeoOffice may be a better choice for schools.

o My favorite new program is EarthDesk 4 from Xeric Design, Ltd., which turns your desktop into a detailed and gorgeous satellite image of Earth. EarthDesk shows the line between daylight and night as it traverses the globe. There are also tiny white dots on the map showing city lights at night, and the program shows accurate cloud cover information. EarthDesk goes well beyond the toy status since it lets you customize the image, change the map's projection, set the time between refreshes, and so on. The program renders the Earth in remarkable detail, and, when set to do so, it continually refines the image to achieve even greater detail. This is a fantastic new tool for geography and Earth science teachers. They truly need it. Besides, h'sfan for the rest of us to have, and, though the cost is $20, there is a free demo version.

o In April, Apple announced that it had sold an astonishing 100 million iPods. It's pretty easy to see why Apple changed its name from Apple Computer to simply Apple Inc.