English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

During week 12 of this project I began by researching how to create a gantt chart, as I was tasked with this. I had a copy of Microsoft Project, so I chose to use it to make the chart. After reviewing the calendar, the group decided which activities were going to be accomplished individually, and those that would be done as a group. I used this information to create the chart, and followed the submission deadlines posted on the calendar.

I'm also working on researching the costs of open source and Microsoft software products. We've chosen to use a small school (100 computers or less) or a small not-for-profit business as the intended audience. Thus, my research has to account for the costs of software for this size network. It's also important to consider the hidden costs of software products, such as support, and total cost of ownership such as on staff IT work cost.

I'm also managing our group's document sharing using google docs. We are trying to keep all the information organized and in one place so our brainstorming, research, and drafts will be accessible to all at all times. Google docs even supports versioning which is really great for keeping track of changes to the documents.