Google docs

This is great - another thing I wish I had thought of using before. Instead of attaching files and emailing them to myself to look at when I get home, I can just pop them onto Google docs.... of course the real selling point of Google docs is the capacity for shared editing. So a number of colleagues can work on a document at the same time without having to email it back and forth. Or, a number of friends can decide collaboratively who will bring what food to the barbie!!

Google does seem to be becoming all things to all people. I just worry that after using these things and getting too attached to them that somthing bigger and better will come along and render them obsolete. Sometimes it seems like everything is moving so fast, as soon as you get the hang of one tool, another one comes along which does more, better, faster, and it's all change again....

But for the time being I think I'll see how I go with Google docs. I think once I start using it I'll be in a better position to draw some conclusions. One thing that strikes me though is the issue of copyright - I mean if people are sharing pdfs (e.g. downloading and sharing journal articles) with colleagues who don't have the same access rights? But then I suppose if people were going to break copyright law in this way thay'd already be doing that by emailing file attachments.

I don't know that I'd want to put anything too big or important on the Google Docs 'cloud' - maybe that makes it not much use, if I don't trust it 100%? Oh well - I'll see how I go...looks good to me so far!

Web 2.0 heaven

aaahh.... this is what we need! Phil Bradley has collected together all these links to Web 2.0 resources and put them into categories - extremely helpful! Thanks Phil!
Web 2.0 resources

why scientists blog

I just came across this blog thanks to one of the blogs I already follow.

I liked the reasons these scientists gave (in the 'about' page) for blogging: "the use of social media has given us a tremendous outlet by which to translate and promote scientific knowledge and engage the public discourse"

which sums it up nicely, I think.