Seems like we’ve been waiting ages for Google to allow new registrations to Writely. If you’re a registered user already it’s possible to enrol 50 other users, but that’s limiting when you want the whole of Year 7 to collaborate. Time to recognise that Writely isn’t the only game in town (though it is the one with the coolest name), and that there are other Web 2.0 wiki-based authoring tools out there.
One such is Zoho writer (Zoho do a number of applications). All the usual Web 2.0 wordprocessor tools are there, including support for MS Office and Open Office users. There are a few more facilities in the toolbar but functionality is very similar to Writely.
There are umpteen other Web 2.0 WP apps out there ready for the taking. I wonder what will happen when they come out of beta though?
Having now used Zoho, it appears that it’s not as versatile as Writely. I managed to get a concurrent session working with a friend, and Zoho locks one user from editing while somebody else is writing. While this might be useful in some situations eg not wanting two people to edit at the same time, it has some serious usability limitations. That being said, Writely has the same kind of limitation but in a different way when two people decide to edit the same place in a document at the same time.
I still like the extra versatility that Zoho gives by way of adding tables to the page, and other html-attributes that are missing in Writely, I feel. Horses for courses – it’s a question of choosing the appropriate tool for the job.
You may want to use Writely with year 7 but I think you’ll find that users need to be 13 years old!
I’m currently experimenting with IM, having encounterd the problems that you’ve outlined above. Children are familiar with the way IM works – they can still edit by revising work in the next post. Try http://www.campfirenow.com for a cool IM app.