Thing 9 - Collaboration

Hmmm. Google Docs shared editing feature. I'm not impressed based on my experience with the sample document in this exercise. Here's my story.

I have a Google account, I asked for the permission necessary to edit the document via email as instructed at the 23 things blog. I got an e-mail that indicated that I have permission to edit this shared document. I clicked on the link, went to the doc, clicked on the "edit this page" link and got a message that I don't have permission to edit the document. (I summarize, this circle was reiterated with variations several times, but with the same results.)

If people who were actually trying to co-edit a document ran into this many obstacles, they would just call and set up a meeting at a coffee shop and bring their laptops and yellow legal pads. Maybe the whole setup for 23 things added another layer of complication, but this is NOT straightforward.

I see the value of this kind of tool, but based on the evidence of this experience, not this particular tool.

So, based on what I was able to see of the shared editing of this obscure little document on Google docs -- here are my thoughts. It sure resulted in a mess. I realize this exercise is not really like a true shared authoring situation would be, still... what a mess. Strikes me that the hard part of shared editing is negotiating with the other editors about the content. I couldn't see how this tool allowed for a history of the revisions to the document. Nor did there seem to be the facility to put notes to your collaborators (independent of the doc text) explaining why you were making an edit/addition, etc. Of course, I may be all wet with these observations, since I couldn't get access to the edit function. ;)

A presentation to share - please view!
Anyway, I created a slide presentation on Google Docs. It was pretty straightforward. This tool is limited, though. There were several simple tasks it could not do. For example, when a photo I imported needed to be rotated 90 degrees to orient the correct way, this presentation tool couldn't do that. I found a solution by manipulating the image in other software on my pc, re-saving it and uploading it again. Also, if you want to layer a shape with, for example, text, you can no longer manipulate the shape in any way once you've sent it to the back layer. It is also difficult to place graphics consistently in the same relative place from slide to slide because there isn't a ruler or grid to help you position things. So, if you had a bare bones kind of presentation to do, this could work well. Anything more sophisticated might not be possible.