Collaborative work applications, collectively known as office 2.0, are allowing people to work remotely with other people in entirely new ways, and prompting the biggest shift in the way we work since Microsoft Office launched in 1989. The next wave of web-based work applications is prepared to make editing documents on your desktop as old-fashioned as correcting mistakes with Liquid Paper. Microsoft is yet again the catalyst, recently opening up a public beta for its Office Live Workspace. Google and various little-known startups, such as AdventNet's Zoho, have offered office 2.0 applications for a while now, yet many of us have been using Microsofts programs for as long as we can remember. The recent initiative by Microsoft legitimizes office 2.0 and gives us no excuse not to try it. Office Live enables users to keep track of documents automatically over the Internet, and people with whom you are sharing documents dont even need to have Office loaded to open and edit the documents. Your sensitive files are in good hands with Microsoft because it is safer to have Microsoft protecting your data than employees carrying around stuff on a disc key that can be lost easily. Speed is basically a nonissue as well because many of the best applications operate inside Flash, which slickly replicates the desktop experience. Office Live might be a gateway drug for companies and workgroups to explore the full possibilities of office 2.0 and various products, not just those of Microsoft. You will want to check out 37signals Basecamp as well as ConceptShare. More than 600 applications in more than 50 categories are now available.