GoogleDocs for Innovation

I have been using GoogleDocs to share files with my Teaching Assistants since 2008. I have searched the web off and on over the last several weeks to try and find something newer, better, stronger, faster to support my Socio-Technical Innovation, and have come back to the site I know. My innovation revolves around creating better technology for harnessing the power of the sun, and then deploying that technology in creative ways to improve life.

One of the first areas I would like to exploit is the desalination of sea water. A solar-powered facility could purify and pump water potentially long distances, with periodic aggregation and redistribution sites as needed. In order to make solar power a viable long-term solution, the cost of power production must decline, while the durability of products must increase. This will involve getting together a team of scientists, engineers and materials experts in order to generate the flow of ideas that will lead to the next great solar power breakthroughs.

  

GoogleDocs is helpful in this kind of collaboration because (1) it creates a cloud-based file storage system with built-in ability to share or hide information. A major bonus of the system is the easy accessibility of files from any location with internet access. Files can also be downloaded for working offline, then uploaded when modifications are complete. (2) GoogleDocs keeps track of revisions, so you know who made the most recent changes to the documents. Because I have used this tool so effectively in my own work, I see it as a critical component of collaboration and innovation.  It is a great combination of technical innovation leading to superior, practical sharing of ideas across time and distance.

Ideally research would be funded by non-profit groups, and experts world-wide could collaborate to create improved solar power technologies for humanitarian purposes. The research could also be shared, and modified by those wishing to pursue profits from the new advances. In the long run, everyone can benefit from an open project to improve solar power options.

GoogleDocs