Acrobat.com in action (Image credit: Adobe)
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Keeping documents on our computers can be risky business. They are subject to all kinds of dangers. Hard drive crashes, file corruption and theft, among other things, can do them in. Plus local documents have the problem of being, well, local. Think about the times that you've been traveling. You were ready to work on that important business document only to discover that the file was unavailable because it was ensconced on your office computer 2,000 miles away.
Adobe wants to help you overcome these limitations through a collaborative web-based service called Acrobat.com. Acrobat.com consists of a suite of services that, although somewhat disjointed today, will be harmonized next month. These include Adobe ConnectNow, Buzzword, Tables and Presentations.
ConnectNow is the collaboration tool. It offers screen sharing that also supports your PC's or Mac's microphone, chat, and even your web camera. Buzzword is a decent on-line word processor that Abode acquired from Virtual Ubiquity. Tables, still under development but available through Acrobat.com Labs, is a slimmed down spreadsheet. It isn't intended to replace Excel, but it does handle some of the more basic spreadsheet tasks. Thoughtfully, it offers a Private View mode that helps prevent the data loss that can occur when multiple creators work on the same spreadsheet at the same time. Also under development is the logically titled Presentations used for, you guessed it, PowerPoint-like presentations.
Collaborative services are not new. Nor are they unique to Adobe. Microsoft's SharePoint, Cisco's Webex Collaboration are but two of the competitors to Acrobat.com’s collaboration. But, Adobe's Rick Treitman, Director of Product Management and Entrepreneur in Residence, argues that there is a difference between these various services. He reports that when Adobe created Acrobat.com they "thought long and hard about the collaboration and what real time collaboration really means."
Adobe also thought about the most appropriate business model for a collaborative service. And, in doing so, they made the decision that Acrobat.com would be free for individual business users. According to Rick Treitman, "Cost is a speed bump for collaborative services. Collaboration demands a free service. If just one of the participants doesn't want to pay that kills the collaborative effort."
It's a good point, although Adobe isn't being totally altruistic in their endeavors. While individuals get free access with some limitations, Adobe offers an upgraded fee-based service called Acrobat.com Premium aimed squarely at small and medium sized businesses.
As a writer, I value the ability to freely collaborate with others in the tech industry and produce columns in a manner that doesn't tie me down. There is great advantage to being able to create a column free of tethers to a specific computer or even to a given desktop word processor. And since Buzzword can import and export Microsoft Word files, it is ideal for my purposes. In fact, I wrote this column using Buzzword on a Mac Pro running Snow Leopard. It was edited on a MSI Wind with Buzzword running under Ubuntu Linux. I exported it from Buzzword to Microsoft Word for the final edit using another MSI Wind netbook running Windows XP. This trifecta of machines and operating systems all worked perfectly with Buzzword--just as they should.
It's not perfect, but I like what Acrobat.com has to offer. So much so that I plan to use it for my day job as well as for my after hours writing. The collaboration capability offered by Acrobat.com is well thought out. It offers decent security including virus scanning, and password lock out from any computer should the unexpected occur to your laptop or netbook.
In creating Acrobat.com, Adobe has enjoyed a good start in offering collaborative services. There is no question that Acrobat.com can only get better over time.
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