Thing 16: Collaboration Tools

Collaborating positively...

Collaboration tools are really useful examples of how cloud based sharing can be used to facilitate collaboration and communication.

Although, I have never had to use Google Docs myself for work or otherwise, I can see how it has the potential to make working together so much easier for groups of students or colleagues.  

The fact that you can now work on and edit documents together at the same time without the old fashioned e-mailing back and forth is a great break through.   

Google Docs can make working together a truly collaborative process.  Not only can people work together in real time and from any location on the same document but you can also leave comments in the comments box or in the margins for others in the group who may be working on it later. 

When it works, it is a great way of working together on reports or projects.  The other side of all this collaboration is the need for moderation.  I have never worked on a collaborative Google Doc myself but I can easily see the potential for conflict arising over the final edits if there are strong personalities with opposing opinion about what should go in and what should be left out!   

Doodle was something totally new to me before reading the blog but it also looks like a really useful and time saving application to use for scheduling meetings.

Because, I work with a relatively small group of people and everybody is based in the same building, old fashioned e-mail works just fine for us when we need to arrange meetings.  However, if you working in a much bigger, more dispersed organisation, it could save loads of time on making arrangements.  The poll option for scheduling meetings would be really great if you were working on a big project where people are working in different organisations and different time zones and need to arrange the most suitable time to meet either virtually or in a particular place.  Organisations like NGO’s with offices and projects in different countries would really benefit from using the tool.  And the fact that Doodle integrates with Outlook, Google Calendar or iCloud makes the whole process even more seamless for the end user.

Both of these tools make it easier to communicate and collaborate and anything that can help people save time or take some of the stress out of working with and relying on others can only be a very positive thing.