An online file sharing service provides a way to store and access information, s uch as documents, data, photos and

video, in the cloud rather than storing the i nformation locally on a device hard drive or removable media. The advantage of o nline file sharing services, such as Dropbox, is that companies using the servic e do not have to support and maintain the data themselves. The information store d in an online file sharing service can be accessed from any device that has an Internet connection, including smartphones and tablet PCs, and by anyone who is given data access rights. Google documents, diigo, cacoo, www.brainloop.com/ www.ttnetbulutu.com/ www.team desk.net/ workspace.officelive.com/ www.dropbox.com/ lifehacker.com/.../best-onl ine-file-sharing-s. www.caviumnetworks.com www.livedrive.com CX.com www.gpg4o.de http://www.scribd.com/ Whether you're trying to share megabytes worth of music with a friend or send an important document to a coworker, nothing outshines a fast, easy-to-use file-sh aring service. Your business runs on many sources of information - documents, spreadsheets, pre sentations, e-mails, and more. Everything is in different places and often on di fferent computers. The WebOffice Document Manager makes it easy to keep your inf ormation organized and easily accessible. Your Central The Document information os - quickly where. Information Resource Manager changes the way you work by organizing all of your business online. Store and share documents, presentations, files - even phot and easily. Your information is always available on-demand from any

 Access your information on-demand Organize all of your documents in one place on line using a simple web browser. Navigate documents in a familiar folder hierarchy Manage your information with e ase just like on your personal computer. Drag and drop multiple files Upload all of your business information to your Web office easily using Web Folders. Find documents fast Use Integrated search to quickly find the information you ne ed. Reduce email overload Send co-workers web links to documents rather than large e mail attachments. Easily Manage and Organize Your Information The Document Manager makes managing your business information simple. Organize d ocuments and files for your entire company, departments, projects, and teams. Th e Document Check In/Check Out feature ensures the latest version of a document i s always available. You even have full control over who can access and edit your documents, allowing you to keep sensitive information secure. Plus, use The Per sonal Documents Tab as a personal filing system that's right inside your WebOffi ce. WebOffice members can store their own individual files in a private area tha t's accessible only to them, separate from the Group Documents area. Fast File Uploads and Powerful Search Capability Storing and finding your information is simple with the Document Manager. Upload multiple files the fast and easy way using Web Folders and find information fas t with Integrated Search. You can even add our optional Full-text Search to make finding your information even faster! About Information/Document Sharing Effective collaboration and document sharing is one of the originating reasons b ehind the development of the network technologies that eventually led to the int ernet as we know it today. In the 1970's, ARPANET connected several universities , allowing researchers and scientists to actively share information resources ov er great distances. The first and most important method birthed by these network s was the protocols allowing electronic mail. These fundamental tasks that drove the early development and innovation of the larger internet itself have been st reamlined and focused by years of technological advance. Large scale information sharing and editing capabilities are available to anyone with internet access, and for no extra cost in many cases. The latest innovative approaches to fulfill ing these information sharing needs include concepts like cloud computing and pe er-to-peer file sharing. Cloud computing refers to the use of online application s

which allow dynamic storage, use of, and editing of media without any need for t he user to host, maintain, or store it themselves locally. Peer-to-peer file-sha ring allows large networks of users to share information autonomously as if they were hosted in a traditional server-client environment. Peer-to-peer filesharin g and it's offspring Bit torrent sharing are controversial due to the widespread use of these methods in information piracy. [edit] How does Information/Document Sharing work? Information/Document Sharing works in a variety of ways, depending on the types of information you wish to share and the manner in which you want to share it. B elow, we've provided several examples of the different types of information/docu ment sharing available on the web. Online Document Collaboration Google Document s (originally Writely): Google Docs mirrors many of the functions of traditional desktop applications like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint and combines them with th e flexibility, sharing power, and portability of Gmail. To find out more about h ow Google Docs works, check out this informative video. Zoho : Zoho is suite of powerful online office applications. In addition to offering traditional office applications like Zoho Writer (documents), Zoho Sheet (spreadsheets), Zoho Show (presentations), Zoho also provides tools for note taking, project management, o nline databases, and customizable wikis. Writeboard : Writeboard is a standalone tool which allows you to create, share and collaborate on textbased documents. All you need is a valid e-mail address and an idea, and you're ready to use Writ eboard. EtherPad : EtherPad focuses on real-time document collaboration, making it perfect for taking meeting notes or brainstorming ideas for your next project . Note: EtherPad's parent company, AppJet, was recently acquired by Google and t he service is being transitioned to the Google Wave project. Online Document Sha ring Scribd : Scribd is a social publishing application, which allows you to pub lish your own documents to the web and search the submissions of others. DocStoc : DocStoc, like Scribd, is an online social publishing application. DocStoc fea tures include a large supply of document templates, and the ability to transfer large files free of charge. edocr : Yet another document storage solution, edocr boasts excellent web2.0 compatibility, Google indexing, and contextual archivin g.

Slideshare : As its name implies, Slideshare allows you to share your presentati ons with anyone in the world. With Slideshare you can add audio to your slides, embed your slideshows on your own personal blog or website, and join groups of o ther Slideshare members with similar interests. OnStage : OnStage is a online ap plication that provides document collaboration and project management tools. It features integration with other cloud computing tools like Scribd, and a healthy amount of security features. Directory Sharing & Synchronizing Box.net (BETA) : While this application is still in development, it mirrors much of the FTP-styl e sharing that makes Windows LiveSync so interesting without the any required ho tmail/Windows Live account. Windows LiveSync : A free application from Microsoft which allows users to sync and share files and directories between computers an d users. Requires a Windows Live/Hotmail account. Dropbox : Dropbox is a downloa dable application which not only provides secure file backup, but also a simple way for synchronizing and sharing files across multiple computers. A free Dropbo x account provides 2GB of space; additional storage requires a monthly fee. [edi t] Best Practices The Monterey Public Library offers instructions on using Google Docs on library computers. The Princeton Public Library and Casa Grande Public Library use Slide share host a number of presentations created by library staff to provide informa tion to patrons, including "Fab Freebies for Productivity", which provides infor mation on free productivity software. The Lake County Public Library uses their Slideshare account to provide information to their staff for professional develo pment. Elyssa Kroski, a librarian blogger, has written an in-depth blog post des cribing her use of Zoho Creator to create an online database for tracking refere nce data. In their efforts to create a shared integrated library system, the Nor th Texas Regional Library System used Zoho Sheet to share cost-sharing informati on about five vendors they were considering. The Washington-Centerville Public L ibrary uses Scribd to upload and share a number of documents of interest to thei r patrons, such as a research pathfinder on Mars and a list of the Best Novel Ne bula Award Sharing information is what the Internet is about. The problem is that not all i nformation is easily made into HTML pages so it can be easily shared. The

creation of easy to use content management systems has made it easier for anyone to become a web publisher, but there are still times when it is not easy to put the information you want to share with the world online. Often the problem is b ecause the format the information is in is not easily converted to HTML. Fortuna tely there are now easier ways to share documents that do not require you to exp ort documents to HTML. Here are some of the easiest ways I have found to share d ocuments on the web. Google Docs Google Docs allows people to upload many different formats of documents which yo u can then share. Speadsheets and Presentations can be embedded into web pages, and word processing documents can be saved as web pages. For example here is a q uick document I made just to share with all of you. Scribd Scribd is my favourite way to embed PDF and Word documents online. They support a wide range of document types including: Microsoft Office: Microsoft Word Files doc, docx Microsoft Powerpoint Files ppt, pptx, pps Microsoft Excel Files xls, xlsx PDF: PDF pdf, ps Open Office: Open Office Documents odt, odp, sxw, sxi, etc . Text: Text Documents txt, rtf Once the documents are uploaded you can copy and paste the embed code and add the document as a flash reader to your website or blog. Makes it great for people to read that PDF instead of downloading it. Docstoc Docstoc is similar to Scribd in many ways. You can upload documents and embed th em in your website. Docstoc recently just came out of beta and has also started an AdSense revenue sharing program. This gives people the opportunity

to share in the money that is made from their documents that they upload to Docs toc. Check out the video below if you would like to know more. edocr I just recently came across edocr, and have not much of a chance to try it yet. It looks similar to Scribd as well, but the site appears to cater more to busine ss than to individuals. If anyone has more experience with them leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. SlideShare SlideShare is my favourite way to embed presentations in a website. Simply uploa d the presentation and you can then easily copy and paste the embed code to add the presentation to your website to let people click through the slides. SlideBoom Similar to SlideShare but with more of a focus on business presentations and sha ring with other business colleagues. Empressr Is not just a presentation sharing website. They allow you to create your own pr esentaions online and then embed them into your website using a flash embed. Those are some of the web services I have found and use to easily embed document s into websites and blogs. As I mentioned I have my favourites, what are yours?