Google Drive Blog

Collaborating on Art, Crafts, and Google Docs, too

Friday, January 16, 2009

What do girl-friendly skateboarding, making shoes out of a sweatshirt, and building a website have in common? They're all examples of classes that are offered by the Rock Paper Scissors Collective -- a volunteer-run organization based in Oakland, California dedicated to promoting creativity and collaboration in the community. Continuing our series on non-profits, we chatted with Mark Nicola, Volunteer Coordinator, about the organization and the work (and art) that they do for their local area.

(Photo credit)
Now in its fourth year of operation, the RPS Collective achieves their mission by providing classes, youth outreach programs, an art studio, a retail store, and exhibition space for the community to come together through art, crafts, and performance. High school students can take advantage of an internship program to explore their interest in art, fashion and entrepreneurship, while artists can apply to have their work displayed in the gallery or sold in the Collective's store. RPS Collective's popular art and crafts classes are open to the public, and over 50% of classes are either free or donation-based.
The RPS Collective started using Google Docs over two years ago to streamline their processes, and--true to their mission--to promote collaboration. Mark echoed the challenges faced by many non-profit organizations, "We have lots of meetings, but being volunteer-run, having lots of meetings is just really tough. We realized that we should be collaborating more online. And Google Docs is a really good way for us to do this." Today, Mark and his teammates use Google Docs to write grant proposals collaboratively, circulate how-to guides, and manage volunteers' schedules.
Volunteers help with everything from operating the retail store, staffing gallery events, to teaching classes. For more information on volunteering at the RPS Collective, visit their website at www.rpscollective.com.
Posted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager

Inspiring Youth Through Robotics

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

We continue our non-profit series in the state of Connecticut, where the temperatures today are below freezing and there's a good chance of snow tomorrow. The cold weather didn't stop Michael Sperber, Chair of Connecticut FIRST, from contacting us to tell us about how his organization uses Docs for event management, alumni outreach, and event surveys.

Connecticut FIRST is the Connecticut arm of FIRST, a not-for-profit organization that organizes robotics programs and competitions for young people ages 6 through 18. Young people are exposed to math, science, and engineering as they build their robots. Working in teams of at least 25 and guided by adult mentors, participants develop life skills such as teamwork and leadership.
The Connecticut organization has 33 FIRST Robotics Competition program teams consisting of over 1,000 high school students. Students are now busy building robots to compete in Lunacy, a competition where robots will have to navigate a low friction surface that simulates driving on the surface of the moon. Cool!
Michael has been involved in FIRST for over 12 years and uses Google Docs (as part of Google Apps) with over 10 others on the leadership team. Here are some things they're doing:

A volunteer coordinator tracks volunteer contact information in an online spreadsheet.
For an upcoming event, the leadership team has shared a spreadsheet to track invitation lists for VIPs. Michael told me, "Instead of sending attachments, it's much easier to do this online collaboratively."
They've recently discovered Forms and in the near future will be creating surveys to collect information from alumni to help build their alumni network.

To learn more about FIRST and its volunteer opportunities, visit the volunteer opportunities page.
Posted by: Andrew Chang, Marketing Manager

Countdown to MLK Day of Service

Monday, January 12, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Servicefeaturing a few non-profit organizationstemplatesWest Valley Community Servicescontact listsformsweekly parent workshopswww.wvcommunityservices.orgthis formPosted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager

Calling all Non-Profits: Share your Docs story for King Day of Service

Friday, January 9, 2009

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Servicethis formPosted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager

Teachers shared their projects and ideas

Monday, December 22, 2008

Back in September we asked teachers to send us some examples of how they used Docs in their classrooms. Teachers are some of our most avid Docs users, so I knew we would see some pretty creative ideas.
Once again, I was impressed by our teachers' creativity, ingenuity and ability to use Docs to solve every day challenges. The submissions we received ranged from forms that students use to provide peer feedback for group work or write a book review for their class to spreadsheets used to conduct science experiments. Some teachers, like Sallie Hill, even used Docs and Google Sites to run a history project with students around the world. Now that's what I call collaboration!
To see some of the best of the ideas that were submitted, check out our Docs for Teachers page. Thanks to all of you for sharing your ideas and your work. We look forward to seeing what else you come up with.Posted by: Ashley Chandler, Docs User Operations

Access Google Docs from your Desktop

Friday, December 19, 2008

Docs gadget in GmailGoogle Docs GadgetGoogle Desktop

open sourcedGoogle Documents List Data APILinuxWindowsGoogle Appslet us knowPosted by: Ronald Ho, Product Manager & James Yum, Desktop Engineer

We've launched a new Google Docs Help Forum

Thursday, December 18, 2008

As some of you may have already noticed, the Google Docs Help Forum (in English) has undergone a makeover. Here's what we've added:

Question & answer format to help you find answered threads quickly
Profiles that allow you to associate a picture with your username
Ability to subscribe to threads by email or RSS feed so you can get updates
Votes for the best answer to a question, and the ability to tag an answer to your question as the 'Best answer.'

Your feedback proved invaluable when designing the new platform. Thanks in advance for your patience as we work to build a community in the new Google Docs Help Forum. We hope you'll come check it out.

Note for non-English Docs users: if you participate in the Help Forum in another language, rest assured that our engineers are working on making this new platform available in additional languages, but we don't have a date at this time.
Posted by: Stephen Drennan (AKA Google Docs Guide 'Steve')