Office 2.0 is going Mainstream
Sunday, June 18th 2006 | Ismael Ghalimi
This morning, I received a link to a very nice New York Times article introducing its readers to the concept of web-based alternatives to Microsoft Office. This is one of the first times that a mainstream publication covers this topic. It does not make Office 2.0 a mainstream phenomenon yet, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction, and one that we can learn a couple of things from.
First, in the author’s view, the main argument for switching is simply cost. Microsoft Office is priced at about $400, while you could buy a headless computer for less than $300. The maths are pretty simple.
Second, Google will be the main driving force behind the democratization of the Office 2.0 concept, which so far remains something akin to science fiction, even for the most techno-savvy among us. With Google buying Writely and releasing Google Spreadsheets, the trend has been set. Once they release an Office 2.0 alternative to PowerPoint — which might look like this — the point of no return will have been reached.
Third, Zoho Writer works, as demonstrated by the fact that the author could write his article using it instead of Microsoft Word. I am using the very same application for writing press releases for the intalio.com website, as was described in this earlier post. This means that at least two blokes could find a way to put Zoho Writer to some productive use. It sure feels good to know that I am not the only one.
Many thanks to Arvind Natarajan from AdventNet for sharing the article. It did not make me proud, for I had nothing to do with it — you guys did, but it made me glad to think that I was not totally delusional…
Entry filed under: Office 2.0
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[…] In an interesting article written recently by The New York Times, office 2.0 got some of its first (to my knowledge) true mainstream publicity. I first found this story at IT|Redux and am excited to see a broader acceptance of the idea of running applications formerly found on your desktop, in your browser. The article talks about both Writely and Google Spreadsheets (amongst others) and takes a good look at many of the important aspects of office 2.0. […]
Thanks, Ismael.
You wrote:
“This means that at least two blokes could find a way to put Zoho Writer to some productive use. It sure feels good to know that I am not the only one.”
I have made a post elaborating on how you two aren’t alone ;-)
Windows Vista Troubles an Opportunity for Linux to Ascend…
Ok, I just read the newly restored blog posting of Mr. Phillip Su. To my mind, the firestorm over this issue is a harbinger of the death rattle of heavyweight OS’s, and a herald of coming…
I’ve been using Writely for a while. Sadly, some people who need to access stuff there don’t seem capable of reading the access instructions! But I’m sticking with this type of solution. It just makes sense when collaborating with others.
Ismael,
A bit off-topic — when using Salesforce.com are you able to filter your contact list by “function”? In other words are you able to generate a list of “CEOs”, or “developers”, or “engineers” for the various companies you work with?
I got an individual account based on your evaluation of Salesforce.com and I really like it but I need this functionality and I have not been yet able to do it easily. Whenever you get a chance, I’d appreciate a word of wisdom.
Thanks,
-Ryan
Ryan,
If you do not want to customize the ‘Contact’ object, you could simply use the standard ‘Title’ field and create reports that would show people having the “CEO” title or the “Developer” title by setting up a simple filtering rule.
You could also create a ‘Position’ custom field that would have pre-defined values, allowing you to put your contacts in a limited set of buckets, irrespectively of their actual titles. This might be a better option for targeted marketing campaigns.
I hope this helps.
Ismael,
Thanks for your help and thanks for introducing me to Salesforce — I really love it! I just wish it was a little cheaper. I am trying ZohoCRM at the same time and it’s pretty good, but not in the same class (at least not yet).
Thanks again,
-Ryan
Ismael,
Just a thought: one could use the custom field to indicate whether a particular contact is a decision maker, influencer, evaluator, etc. Pretty slick!
-Ryan
Ryan,
I am doing something very similar to indicate whether a networker I am connected to is a Maven, a Connector, or a Salesman, using the terminology defined by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point.
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