inqk.net

This is a question. I use Microsoft Word almost everyday. I have a copy on my computer at home and another on my computer at work. Nearly every single person I know has a copy of it. It is the single most prevalent application I can think of that doesn’t come bundled with an operating system.

So why is it if we all have a copy of the same program, if we’re all connected to the Internet and if we all have a copy of what is essentially the same document open we can’t work on it simultaneously?

Here’s what I want to be able to do. I don’t think it’s very hard¹. I start up Microsoft Word and begin working on a document. After working on the document for some time I decide I’d like to share it with my wife who’s on her computer. There is a button on the Word toolbar called ‘Share’. I click it and a dialog box similar to an Open File box appears but a little wider. On one half of the box is a list of contacts I’ve already added and below that is the option to manually type in an email address. I click on my wife’s name. The document is now being shared. It’s still open on my computer and I can continue working on it.

Meanwhile on my wife’s computer she goes to her Word toolbar and clicks ‘Share’. The same dialog box pops up for her. One half has a list of contacts and the other half has a list of documents that are being shared with her. She selects my document and clicks open.  It opens like it would on her computer. Now she can start editing it or leave it open and observe the changes I’m making.

Updates are communicated in real time and we can invite more people into the document if we want. Because the application is running locally there is none of the lag that accompanies web-based editors like Google Docs. And because its Word all the same tools you have available for a local document are available for a shared document. Constant revisions of the document are made over time and if you ever want to ‘unshare’ your version of the document you simply click the ‘Unshare’ button on the toolbar².

Now it’s 2009 and I’ve had broadband Internet for at least 5 years. The fact I can’t actually do what I just described is a problem. The word solutions has been so diluted by marketing departments that it’s come to have almost no meaning but try to remember a time when the word still conveyed something when I say technology companies are about solutions. They’re about solving problems and answering questions.

The reason that products like Google Search and the iPod, and by extension the companies that produce them, are respected and admired is that they solve problems. Before Google Search, finding things on the Internet sucked. Google solved that problem. Before the iPod, synchronising the music on your computer with your music player sucked. Apple solved that problem. It’s the same story for the iPhone, Gmail, Wikipedia, Google Maps, TiVo–you think of a successful technology company and they’ll have something that solves problems.

Microsoft’s problem is that it stopped solving problems. The one Microsoft product that has successfully captured the public imagination in the past couple of years is the Xbox 360. And it does solve a problem. It makes it easy to play video games online with your friends. And people like it for that reason. They respect the product and they respect the company.

There are still problems out there left to solve. Collaborative document editing is one of them. What are they waiting for?