Thing #9: Online Collaboration Tools

OK, I've just finished adding a few silly (and fun) edits to these documents of our Founding Fathers.

I found the sign-up process a bit confusing and nearly gave up on this step a few times. For the Google Docs, I thought I was doing everything right, putting in my Google username and password, etc., and still couldn't get in. Then finally realized I had to ask permission to edit. Makes sense, of course, but I wasn't clear on the process at first.

Both seem equally easy to use, although I only did minor edits, so it's hard to say. When I made my edits, it changed the text, and I didn't understand how the highlighted comments of others and the time stamp showed up in the Google Docs, when it didn't on mine. Or maybe it will show up now that I've logged out? Or maybe there's another feature I need to explore? I did this pretty quickly.

Anyway, very useful and interesting! If the Founding Fathers lived today, this is probably how they would have done it, and who knows what they would have come up with... a Declaration of Independence with emoticons? :)