Thing13 – Google docs, wikis and dropbox

Thing13 – Google docs, wikis and dropbox

Well, I knew this one was going to be fun!


Yes, I have a Google account, but when I login to it it goes straight to my iGoogle page, so looking for Google docs was the first action! Having found it, I was amazed that there was something in there; I’m sure I didn’t put it there, but then, maybe I did, unwittingly! There seems to be a lot of this unwittingly-ness about! However, I have discovered since I posted about thing9 that I did actually create an Evernote account on 4th Feb 2011, so that explains why it was so easy to log in to it!

And it gets even more weird! When I click on the Share link as suggested in thing13, I get a list of people I don’t know (but maybe I should?) Of course, the other contacts it suggests are people I have emailed using my Google email account (which isn’t my professional email!), so I get that bit!

Question is, why would I want to share things with people I don’t know? From a work point of view, I can get at my work files using netstorage so I don’t need to carry them home on Google docs, or I can email them to myself, or I can bring them home on a stick. I suppose, in reality, I don’t really share much of this type of work with colleagues, and when I do we usually email each other, or work on a document via our shared drive. So, I haven’t really got to grips with Google docs, but I can see how it could be useful for sharing documents across institutions.

Wikis? Well, that’s more up my street as I am quite familiar with using wikis. When I first started the cataloguers’ wiki in July 2007, I looked at and tried lots of wiki software that was around at the time and plumped for wikispaces because it seemed to me to be the easiest to use. Since then I have created a wiki imaginatively called the 67things wiki (to help our library staff update their IT skills) and one called tromboneknowhow which simply links to youtube performances of trombone exam pieces.

Dropbox is new to me – well, I think it is, but you know how forgetful I am, it’s quite possible that I have looked at it before but forgotten about it in the meantime! Oh dear, my Norton security did not like dropbox and I couldn’t get past the administrator login on the home pc!

Ah well, back to the drawing board!