The Future of Documents

One of the significant news for the Future of Documents last week was of course the launch of Open Office 3.0 which was very successful – if not too successful !

It’s free, works on all major platforms – Linux, Solaris, Mac, and of course Windows. Many improvements, including better image, table, and note management,  an improved User Interface, makes it well worth trying. It can read its main competitor’s (Microsoft 2007) file formats. It can also output documents into Office 2003 files – although you probably want to stick to using ODF, which is the future XML standard for documents, and should ensure long-term portability and preservation of your native electronic documents.

But what’s even more interesting is that it can also be made available through your browser – Ulteo, a new Open Source project that delivers software applications to web browsers, gives full access to OpenOffice 3.0 in a browser, and adds its virtual desktop  and on-and offline syncing capabilities!

Definitely worth the test – provided your corporate firewall is not blocking access…

A nice feature of Zoho Docs is the fact that it provides an API and enables other applications to use its own applications. One such application is myBooo – a new “mobile desktop” which lets you store, create and synchronize documents on the fly, and have all that accessible from any browser.

MyBooo is actually much more than just a Document  sharing application. It is a virtual desktop, accessible from your favorite browser, with a very cool UI. But the nice thing is, your documents are actually stored on “the cloud” and can be edited from anywhere in the world where you have a browser. That desktop provides you access to most of your favorite applications, directly in the browser: mail, IM, browser, Document apps, calendar, search engines, games, and much more.

You can import some of your existing documents from your real desktop, modify them with Zoho Docs, then export your files back to your real desktop. You can then also share documents with other myBooo users, from anywhere you have a browser. Even better, soon will be able to sync some of your local directories with your myBooo virtual desktop with Booosync.Where it gets even more interesting is the fact that myBooo provides you access from your documents from mobile devices, or upload some of these documents from your mobile phone. Any smartphone with a browser provides you a web interface for retrieving your documents, but a dedicated iPhone application (called iBoooDrive) will shortly be available.

myBooo is still in beta test (Firefox recommended), but it definitely looks very promising!