Behind Glass Walls

Here we go! I’m involved with a student consulting team at QUT. Our task was to create a Business Proposal to encourage the QUT Library to genuinely adopt Web 2.0 technologies and techniques. The team consists of:

• Sarah Killey,
• Darren Cann,
• Sean Marshall
• Donald Gee
• and me!

We’ve really tried to cover a wide range of areas, and think we really can show solid reasons for the uptake of Enterprise 2.0. As part of our report, we produced a video, detailing the content of the report in audio and visual form. Enjoy!

For the Enterprise 2.0 Proposal, our group has been using Google Groups to coordinate tasks, meetings and information. We’ve also got a Google Doc going to build the actual report. Combining Google Groups and Docs provides one location for discussion, planning and comments, and a separate place to construct the report. Some of the features I’ve found most useful in Google Groups is the mailing list facility to contact all group members. The messages are also stored on the group, which is great for referencing the conversation later.

Image of the front page of our Google Groups page.

I can see some of this functionality being very useful for geographically separated businesses. The usual issue of control over the storage of the data applies, but for travel planning, recording meeting minutes or project groups, Google Groups might be just the thing to keep organised.

This post is a continuation from my previous post, looking at some of the issues in collaboratively constructing documents. There are a huge range of options available for collaboratively producing documents. From sharing a file via USB or file hosting website to online editing and annotation, each method is best suited to different purposes. The main considerations include:

• Control:  Where is the document stored? What happen when services/people are not available?
• Security: How easy is it to control who can access the document? What system is used for authentication?
• Versioning: Are different versions stored and are they clearly organised?
• Document Type: File/desktop app (eg. pdf, doc or odt)? Browser-based (eg. wiki, word processing)?
• Formatting, Layout and Markup Language:
  1. Plain Text (“lowest common denominator”) – no formatting
  2. lightweight markup (WikiText, BBCode, Textile) – simple to compose, easy to read in plain text form
  3. WYSIWYG (MS Word, OpenOffice.org, LaTeX) – document preparation systems with full formatting support

In looking at these attributes it is clear that using a Wiki for a sensitive or critical document may not be the best choice. Similarly, sharing a MS Word document via USB drive will quickly cause chaos through incomplete or confused revisions. It is necessary to determine the above attributes before choosing a method of creating the document.