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Workspace Team Blog

Commentary and discussion of the Workspace product: where it's been, where it's going, and what you can do with it.

Published Monday, January 28 2008, 01:06 PM

Workspace and the University Experience

 

I was recently visiting University of Washington chatting with students about Office Live Workspace and web productivity. It was clear to me that email is still the de-facto standard for collaboration. Every one of the students I talked to used Microsoft Office whether on their MAC or PC. So that was great to see. J But they all seemed to default to email to share a document. A few had experimented with other web-based collaboration services, but they ultimately reverted back to e-mail.

When I talked about our approach with Office Live Workspace to extend Office to the web and make it easier to share and collaborate it seemed to really resonate with them. I demoed some of the features and their eyes started to light up. They were really anxious to try it out.

Now, we made this really easy by creating a website geared towards students called SharingU.com If a student uses their .EDU email address they will get priority access. You can also watch a short video on Office Live Workspace. 

Back in October, we announced 12 early adopter schools at EDUCAUSE. I was amazed by the level of interest in Office Live Workspace and the http://get.liveatedu.com/Education/Connect/Apps/ program. Once word started to spread on campus about the service we started getting lots of requests to broaden the pilot.

But the great thing was to get student feedback on the product so we can make it better. Below are quotes from some of the first students using Office Live Workspace:

I have found that the single most beneficial feature of Office Live Workspace is being able to share any document, spreadsheet, and presentation pertaining to your project with all of your group members right from your desktop.

-Madeline Claire Cassato, Miami University

Office Live Workspace eliminates my dependency on using flash drives and email to share documents. It also allows me to keep all of my work in one central location. It has been a big help in organizing my documents, schedule, and e-mail inbox.

-Mike Boyd, Boston University

Now you can sit in the comfort of your home and collaborate and share with others. I would like to say that Share View is mind boggling and Office Live Workspace’s highlight!  As long as you have 24/7 Internet access, group projects are a breeze.

-Dominick J. Ard'is, Florida A&M University

I look forward to sharing with you more feedback as it comes in. The team is really pleased with the early feedback and we are working on lots of new features.

 

Eric

 

 

EDUCASUE Press Pass

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/oct07/10-22EducausePR.mspx

Campus Technology

http://campustechnology.com/articles/56641/

FSU Article http://media.www.fsunews.com/media/storage/paper920/news/2008/01/10/News/New-Microsoft.Program.Gets.Test.Drive.At.Fsu-3148331.shtml

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Comments

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jamiet said:

"Now, we made this really easy by creating a website geared towards students called SharingU.com If a student uses their .EDU email address they will get priority access"

yet again Microsoft are catering to the US only. This stuff is great to read about but why or why do you repeatedly fail to recognise that there is world beyond american shores?

-Jamie

January 28, 2008 4:05 PM
 

ericgilmore said:

Jaime-

What country are you from? What language do you want? I certainly understand your frustration and I apologize we don’t have a localized version for you yet.

With the service initially being released in the US, SharingU was intended to give students early access to the US service. Our plan is to make Office Live Workspace a global service for every Office user. Stay tuned for more info on our WW roll out plans.  

January 29, 2008 6:37 PM
 

Neil Geddes said:

"What country are you from? What language do you want?" - simply United Kingdom English please - Thanks, Neil

January 31, 2008 10:13 AM
 

Brien said:

My comment is about the blog itself rather than your thoughts. I hope you don't mind. When viewing this page in Firefox 2.0.0.11, your posting is cut off on the right side, not the entire blog, just your typing section. For example, near the top I see ".. chatting with studen ..." and "productivity ... " starting the next line. If I reduce the text manually so I can't read it, everything fits. I'm on a ThinkPad, about a 12 inch screen, 1024X768 screen res. Looks OK in IE7. I think you could design the blog to work on both browser platforms. I understand Safari has gone whacky, but this blog should work in Firefox. Brien

February 8, 2008 1:38 PM
 

Brien said:

I work at a private college where we provide data server space for every student. Usually, that student can access their personal space from anywhere. With our new VPN that will be from ANYWHERE.

Problems with our solution that you might resolve with your service?

We can provide shared folders on the file server but each must be requested and manually created. Trouble for both the student and the help desk.

We have no real collaborative option for our students and faculty other than that.

Our server admins have their hands full now so adding new server features is unthinkable.

Bottom line: I like this idea and that's one of the reasons I have this account - for testing of the concept.

February 8, 2008 1:44 PM
 

lawrephord79 said:

groups.msn.com/AntiqueOperatingSystems

use groups with / that have language support

already    i t   i s   built  into  your  browser  already  !

May 20, 2008 10:58 PM
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