I don’t know why I didn’t see this before now (it’s been two whole days!) but, according to lots of news sources (news.google) google opened up Writely for general registration!
I’ve been a really big fan of writely for probably six months now… BEFORE Google acquired them! A friend of mine and I wrote a collaborative project last Winter (about online collaborative writing, no less) using Writely. (It was a very meta-meta written research project. good fun. sorta… actually, not at all. but that had nothing to do with Writely and more to do with the overwhelming nature of our project)
Anyway, I’m excited, aren’t you?!
Why I love Writely:
When my friend and I were searching for online collaborative writing software, Writely was the only one that seemed to be 100% aligned with our goals and interests in collaborative writing. At the time, Writely didn’t yet have the feature to track which writer made which change, and we thought that was a cool deviation from conventional writing tools because we were interested in truly blending two author’s voices and words (although, we’ve sinced learned that there is more to individual voice than a timestamp and a username attached).
Writely was also the only tool we saw that was apparently designed exactly for what we wanted to use it for: write an essay collaboratively. It’s marketed more generally, as an all-purpose wordprocessor instead of as something for technical writers or for corporate collaborative documents, or anything like that.
I loved writely because it was community based, open, and very easy to use. It represented a direction that I think more webbased tools should go in (and perhaps already are): target a specifically more general audience but keep the software simple and contained. Visual interfaces are GOOD when well-designed with “what people actually do” in mind. Keep the feature-set simple, intuitive and specific to the job it’s designed to do (feature-creep == bad). Use open communication forums like a web-forum or a blog to keep in touch with users and keep up with the “what people actually use/need” current.
It’s been my “mission” for a long time (well, since I met Alex Polvi, anyway… who made me realize that my perspective on technology isn’t worthless) to try and help bridge the gap between non-geek “end users” and the tools I know could help them. It started with me wanting to share OpenOffice.org with other English majors, or help them learn how to maintain their computer better so that stuff wouldn’t crash at 3am when they’re trying to write an essay. I tried sharing Ubuntu with some, but it was still too “intimidating” (read “different from windows/mac”) and “buggy” (read, when stuff does break, it really breaks, and sometimes its hard for someone like me to find a linux geek without feeling stupid, or annoying etc).
I want poor students (like I was) to know what’s out there and that they don’t have to pirate the most popular (corporate, closed source, buggy, vulnerable, EXPENSIVE) office suite in order to pass Wr121. They’re already paying enough on tuition and textbooks… their pencils, paper, and wordprocessors should be cheap, if not free!
I knew I was lucky, because I grew up geeky and knew how to search for free alternatives to what most other people used. I also had this nagging problem with pirating software after I left high-school age because I think that the need for piracy at all demonstrates that the industry isn’t meeting its userbase’s needs.
I want it to be possible to use powerful free things (like linux, OpenOffice.org) to do Whatever You Need WITHOUT the need to be a total tech-geek or experienced trouble-shooter.
Anyway, Writely seemed to be totally aligned with my views on collaborative writing, literacy, software, and openness, so I fell in love. Hard. :)
So obviously, I was thrilled when Google acquired them. And now I’m even more thrilled that they’re finally opening registration. Woo hoo!
Anyway, nothing but awesome can come of this… and I’m done blogging for now.
Oh, and btw, here’s the writely blog.
