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Cloud Computing and Web Applications
What is the Cloud?
Most common definitions that I see involve using- or renting space-on computer servers owned by someone else with access to those servers through web applications.
A web application is just software that runs from a server rather than from a desktop. For example, word processing is normally associated a program installed on a computer, e.g. Microsoft Office for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, etc.
With powerful applications running in the Cloud, we can now do most of the things that, for example MS Office, does but using a web browser. Google Docs is one example of a web-based suite of productivity software. Adobe has Acrobat.com has Buzzword.
Document Automation in the Cloud with Google Apps and Drawloop's DDP
Similar cases require similar documents, so why not just create all the documents you might need all at once?
Now you can and very easily. I have been using DDPs (Dynamic Document Packages) for a while now and it is a fast and easy to create entire sets of docs at once.
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Cloud computing moves the desktop to the internet. Cloud based applications can now do many of the things that were previously possible only on the desktop. Microsoft Word is no longer required to write a letter, now you just need a web browser to visit
Google Docs or
Adobe Buzzword.
Another task that the cloud handles well is building and editing interactive websites for public or private purposes.
Sites that allow regular people to edit and add content are generally called “content management systems.” While not everyone wants to personally interact with their website, the option exists. With cloud based applications, the options have proliferated and they tend to bring the web and the people who use it closer together.
It’s the age of the hands-on web, and no coding is required.
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Both an Island and Bridge means Freedom
A specific computer used to be the center of the work life. It had contacts, files, and programs that let us be productive. But it also tethered us to a location and put us at the mercy of that particular machine.
Cloud Apps have changed all that and are now powerful enough to get work done from any computer so your computer is a preference and not a necessity. And the Cloud syncs data between machines so your stuff is always here, there, and anywhere you may need it.
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Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to collect information by emailing or embedding a form in your web site? And have the result automatically entered into a spreadsheet and receive an email notification upon each entry?That is exactly what anyone can do with Google Docs.
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In this post I’m getting a little ahead of myself as I planned to discuss intranet management in Step 5 of the Paperless Express- Leverage the Web. However, the idea presented itself.
Clicking on a link in a Tweet (@SocialRainmaker) I arrived at the Lexis Hub on a post titled “New Associate Training” and found a PowerPoint presentation. I downloaded it and looked it over. It had attractive slides, and good advice for new associates at big law firms.
However, downloading a file and then relying on a machine’s local software is perhaps not as convenient for the viewer or reliable for the author as it could be. These days we have more options and so I put together a quick presentation to show you another way it could be handled.
I created the presentation below, and is running through, Google Docs. Google Docs comes with a Google account and is also bundled with Google Apps, a suite of services used to build intranets for companies and designed to be run by the tech not so savvy. Google Apps is part of the SaaS (Software as a Service) or “cloud computing“ movement now underway.
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