The Digital Home of 2013: Collaborating across town, and across the world

Collaborating via email is, well, outdated. In the future, you won't need to wait for an email with an updated file attachment, and you certainly won't need to send off documents through FedEx. Instead, you will be using services like Google Docs to share documents in real-time, and using next-generation conferencing and messaging services to collaborate. Sharing is the key to the future, and as your mother once told you, sharing is good for you.

Online collaboration allows for people from disparate parts of the globe to work together in achieving a set goal. In the digital home, that could mean that telecommuting becomes easier and you will have the tools available to you to allow you to get your job done in the comfort of your own home office.

That said, shared online workspaces are still a relatively new idea. Just recently, Microsoft announced its Office Live program. Google Docs has collaboration functionality built-in to its online word processor. Adobe has even hinted that most of its products will be used online and with Photoshop Express already available on the Web, the ability to work with a partner editing photos and videos may eventually be a reality. Neat, huh?

According to Google, collaboration is the next big step in online applications and the company is intent on making it a key component of its strategy to ensure that working together becomes an important facet in the digital home of 2013. And as the popularity of social networks continues to rise in tandem with telecommuting, collaboration between geographically dispersed people -- including those working from home, or remote offices -- will be the norm.

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Table of contents from the Industry Standard special feature, Ten Technologies from the Digital Home of 2013:

• Introduction: What your future really looks like: The Digital Home of 2013
• 1. The Digital Home of 2013: High-speed telecommunications
• 2. The Digital Home of 2013: It's an HD world
• 3. The Digital Home of 2013: Gaming gets real
• 4. The Digital Home of 2013: Reach out and touch something
• 5. The Digital Home of 2013: Automated home control
• 6. The Digital Home of 2013: Green goes mainstream
• 7. The Digital Home of 2013: Welcome to the cloud
• 8. The Digital Home of 2013: The rise of streaming media
• 9. The Digital Home of 2013: Online distribution of TV, movies
• 10. The Digital Home of 2013: Collaborating across town, and across the world
• Sidebar: The castoff home technologies of 2013?