Hi Les, > I had no idea people were asking for this kind of feature. Real-time > collaboration on a document seems to me to be a formula for a colossal waste > of time, extending the concept of endless meetings to an online equivalent.
I'm not sure if ti's people in general or just people that I know. But I've seen it come up quite frequently in the past few months. Particularly on blogs and in discussion of software tools. When it arises in face to face communication, as it did during a meeting a month ago, I really try to sit up and pay attention. In the meeting, people were bitching about long-distance collaboration and the slow turn around of document exchange. Several options were suggested: VCS, Google Docs, chat, phone conferences, WebEx, etc. It was a very good discussion and even got a little heated. But then, I'm on the fringes of academics and written documents (particularly reports) are extremely important. It's how we get money and share the results of our work. > In the organizations I'm involved in, written documents of all kinds seem to > be actively discouraged by most managers. The most common kind of "report" > is > an incoherent PowerPoint presentation put together with thought processes and > artistic taste worthy of a four-year-old. > > Writing of any kind is so rare I can't imagine there being any demand for > collaborative writing. Since I've been trying to move toward industry and private consulting, I've also noticed this as well. For that reason, I might be experiencing the effects of an echo chamber. To reiterate my other email, I'm extremely skeptical of the real time collab solutions in general. But if there is a clear use-case where it can be helpful, count me interested. I'd just like to see it done "right." Cheers, Rob
