If you take a look at my post on OpenSesame yesterday, you may notice something about the scenario I posted. Melissa and Tim and Mary all have Notes 8, but Gerald doesn't, and yet he can still edit the spreadsheet with OpenOffice and his revisions show up just like the others. So far, so good.
But what if Mary isn't at home, and doesn't even have her laptop, so she has to go into an Internet cafe in Amsterdam to check her mail, which has all been forwarded to her GMail account so she can check it while she travels. Mary usually uses Notes 8, but when she opens her mail, she realizes that Melissa, her boss, is not going to be too happy if Mary doesn't make her revisions.
So she does. From Google Spreadsheets. In a cafe in Amsterdam. Without setting up any additional software.
And her revisions show up just like the others, and are accepted or rejected by Melissa, and are incorporated back into Notes. And why does it all work so seamlessly?
ODF. OpenDocument Format. The power of standards. Lotus Spreadsheets understands ODF. OpenOffice understands ODF. Google Spreadsheets understands ODF. And now, OpenSesame understands ODF. And that mutual understanding leads to a synergistic collaboration that feels amazing, but will eventually feel obvious. And I am just starting to get it.
Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.
Tags: ODF