Collaborative Platforms

Life in today’s world is very hectic and complicated.  Schedules are insane, and we are constantly over booking ourselves.  In school or in your career it is often required that you work alongside someone else on a task.  Social media has made this so much easier through collaborative platforms.  I am going to talk about my very favorite platform to use.  This is Google Docs. 

I find Google documents to be a life saver during my crazy college schedule.  You may access a Google document by having the owner add you to the page.  You may then work on it every time you login to your Google account, no matter what computer you using or what location you are at.  Google makes it possible for people to work on a page simultaneously while showing that the other person or persons are online.  You are able to leave comments also to show areas of concern. 

Google Docs does not only consist of documents, but you can make spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and web forms all through the platform.  It is low cost and in my experience free depending on the usage and storage.  I also believe it is very easy to use and share.

Some concerns others have had about Google Docs include, that it is too slow for them, there is no offline access, and the document formatting tools are not very good.  As I have used this program I have noticed that if I want a paper formatted a certain way I usually have to download it from the Google and reformat it in a word document.  This can be tricky when working with a group because you must make sure everyone is happy with the final product and aware of what version is the correct one if you upload the finished version to Google. 

Other than these few problems I have found that Google is very user friendly and makes working with people through social media very accessible for everyone.  It definitely has room for improvement, but I believe Google is concerned enough with their face that they will eventually improve it.  Along with Docs, Google has another many other programs to help connect people to work collaborate on projects, like Hangouts, where you can video chat with others.  This program and many other programs are all available in your Google account.  When it comes to Collaborative Platforms I say go for Google.

http://www.coolheadtech.com
http://www.freshminds.net
http://publishing2.com