Thirty-five CUNY librarians braved below-average temperatures (and wind chill) on the morning of November 19 to attend the LACUNY Emerging Technologies Committee’s Fall Program: “Google Chrome, Google Docs and the Explosion of Cloud Computing” at the Graduate Center.
The first part of our program was a presentation by Kevin Reiss (Office of Library Services) on Google’s new browser, Chrome. Kevin discussed the development of the Chrome browser, currently available for the Windows operating system, and highlighted some of its innovative features.
Chrome was specifically designed to run web applications, both those offered by Google and those featured on other websites. It uses the V8 open source JavaScript engine to offer a fast browsing experience, and a simple, minimal design to enable users to focus on the content rather than the browser. Chrome has an all-in-one search and location bar, and opens to a selection of the user’s most frequently visited pages rather than a single home page.
A key innovation is that Chrome runs a separate application process for each tab in the browser. This feature increases browser security, since information cannot be transferred from one tab to another. In addition, if the website or application in one tab crashes, only that tab is closed. The other tabs are unaffected.
Chrome is an open source platform, so the code is freely available for third-party developers to create plug-ins to add functionality to the browser. However, since it just launched in September, there aren’t yet many plug-ins available (unlike Firefox, which has an active developer community and hundreds of plug-ins). Still, Chrome is a promising new entry in the browser arena, and it will be interesting to watch its development.
Next, Jill Cirasella (Brooklyn College) and Maura Smale (City Tech) demonstrated some of the ways that Google Docs can be used for collaborative work by anyone with a Google account. We started using Google Docs to streamline our LACUNY committee administrative work last summer. Our “a-ha!” moment came one day when we used a document, spreadsheet and embedded chat for about an hour, and accomplished so much more than we would have on an hour-long phone call (and didn’t bother officemates, to boot!).
First, Maura demonstrated a Google document. While minimal, its features are very similar to Microsoft Word and are easy to locate on the toolbar at the top of each document. Jill demonstrated a Google spreadsheet, which is quite similar to Microsoft Excel in both features and functionality. Files are saved on Google’s servers and are available anywhere there’s access to a web browser. Version control is automatically maintained, and it’s easy to revert to a prior version of the document at any time.
The collaborative power of Google Docs is that any document can be shared with others, which allows them to create and edit content, too. We shared both the document and spreadsheet with each other to demonstrate this feature. There is a small time lag when saving a document shared by multiple collaborators, but otherwise the process works remarkably smoothly. Also, a feature in Google spreadsheets enables collaborators to chat within a spreadsheet while editing it.
We also briefly highlighted the other types of Google Docs. The presentation application mimics PowerPoint, and the resulting presentations are easily embedded into websites. The forms application allows a user to create a poll or survey and email it. Votes are automatically recorded in a Google spreadsheet for viewing and analysis.
Finally, the presenters and group discussed the implications of the current trend in cloud computing, of which Google Chrome and Docs are but two examples. Cloud computing certainly has many advantages. Applications like Google Docs can be conveniently accessed from anywhere with an internet connection and web browser. In many situations it may be easier and cheaper for IT staff to implement applications in a single location, accessible by the cloud of computers on the network.
However, potential privacy issues abound in cloud computing. We entrust our personal communications and data to Google when using Gmail and Google Docs, though this information is not currently available to internet search engines. Can Google assure us that it will stay true to its unofficial motto: “Don’t be evil”? After all, it is a publicly traded corporation, and as such must answer to its board and shareholders.
The slides from Kevin’s presentation, as well as Jill & Maura’s handout, are available on the LACUNY website.
Jill Cirasella (Brooklyn College) and Maura Smale (City Tech)
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