Yes, the word processing future is here I think... 
A word processor on the web is the future step for the collabourative work
and someone has launched the first service, called Writely.
Writely is essentially an AJAX tool that allows you to edit
documents online with whomever you choose, and then publish and post them
online. You can specify exactly who can edit or view your
documents and it's like having a word processor on your machine (full of
functionality).
Obviously, the future is not Writely itself, but the idea at the top
of it... the possibility to edit documents online and shared with colleagues
it's terrible cool. Can you imagine if you can open a document with your MS
Word, share it with other users and start working together from different part
of the world?
MS Office has to start thinking about features like
these...