Collaborating in real time

Remember when you worked on a document or presentation with somebody and you would email it back and forth with the changes? That is so last month. In working on this presentation (no longer available) on blogging for the past week or ten days, we used Google’s Presentation (Powerpoint for the unenlightened) to work together. Chatting within the presentation making changes was mighty efficient.

I’ve said before, and this is a clear example, effecting change needs to be at least a two-pronged approach. Working from outside the aging gorilla’s reach is effective, but working within the behemoth’s reach in tandem with those outside efforts should prove much more effective. For better or worse, those to whom we are talking this afternoon make decisions that affect tens of thousands of Virginia Realtors. Influencing their conversation is but one way to get things done.

In an example of the Web 2.0 world, I’ve spoken to Ben Martin dozens of times, (only a couple of times on the phone, the rest on IM or Skype) worked on this presentation for a couple of hours, and have yet to meet him, but have full confidence that today’s talk will go smoothly. I’m looking forward to the question and answer part.

Update 1 October 2007:

Sites referenced today:

Cindy Jones’ blog (no longer available)
Merv Forney’s blog (no longer available)
Bloodhound Blog
Rain City Guide
Inman Blog
Robert Scoble (no longer available)
Blip TV (RSS explained)
Pewinternet
Rembex (real estate blog search) (archived: 2007)
Cluetrain Manifesto
Creative Commons (copyrighting)

Update 05 January 2008: Google just released embedd-ability, so I re-posted with the embedded presentation.