9.

I already use google docs regularly, but I had not even heard of zoho prior to this exercise. From what I gather, Zoho has a few more processing features that make it more functional than google docs. However, google docs seems to be more well-suited to collaboration. This is especially evident in the edits of the DI, where the google doc is much more heavily edited. This seems to me to demonstrate the greater collaborative abilities of google docs. As I mentioned in the last post, I use google docs for group work in my LIS 5033 class. This works very well, as we can edit in near real-time.

That being said, the two utilities seem to be very similar. The main reason I would prefer google docs is that I use google for mail and calendars as well. I guess this means the internet has turned into wal mart. Perhaps I'm settling for an inferior product because I can find all these utilities under google's "cloud."

I have a feeling the founding fathers would be pretty appalled by the edits of the declaration of independence (unless the collaborative utilities were open to educated, white, property-owning men). Maybe they would appreciate the input from the commenting feature on zoho. If they had been using it amongst themselves, it might have been a powerful tool. But it would also likely have led to a great deal more bickering over details. My 5033 group has not had this problem, but I'm guessing the founding fathers were a bit more egocentric.