Comments on: Facilitating Research Collaboration with Google’s Online Tools

By: reilly

reilly — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:09:15 +0000

thx matt – i know google is ending the docs feature in groups, but it’s not a huge issue for us since, as dean pointed out, we were already using google docs for spreadsheets etc. and then just linking them back to the group.

it’s too bad they cancelled the files feature, but i think storing all emails as discussions and allowing users to tailor the frequency of their updates still makes groups very worthwhile. dean – yes, the group is like a discussion board, listserv, and archive (though the files are stored in docs not groups, but are organized and can be accessed via the group).

let me know what other alternatives you’ve been considering, matt. i’m definitely not attached to google, and i try to favour non-proprietary options. i’ve used riseup for some of the organizing work that i do, and pbworks extensively for project management for the not-for-profit i work for (openmedia.ca). i chose google for our EMIC project because email tracking across different generations of RAs seemed like the biggest priority to me, and google seems to be the most intuitive to new users.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:37:08 +0000

I agree that this is an interesting suggestion. As Dean notes, however, this service will end on November 1st. After this point, the uploaded files will be read-only before access is taken away permanently.
I would agree Project Management for Humanities projects needs to be addressed. We need something easily accessible, easy to understand and open source. Basically, we need an open Basecamp. I suspect the best way to deal with the Google Group problem is to simply create a gmail address for one’s project and then use the “docs” function to accomplish the same things Reilly mentions above.
Reilly, you will want to batch download all of your files. Instructions are here: http://groups-announcements.blogspot.com/2010/09/notice-about-pages-and-files.html?hl=en

Google Groups went Hal 3000.

By: Dean Irvine

Dean Irvine — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:49:51 +0000

This is an intriguing suggestion, Reilly. On a local level, many of us have already used Google Docs for collaborative projects related to EMiC. I see that Google is (as of 1 November) disabling the pages and files functions in Google Groups, though the files function is defintely still available through Google Docs. I notice that you’ve been storing all of your files in Google Docs already, so you won’t have to migrate. So basically is Google Groups a message board and Google Docs a repository where you store the files? I’ll be interested to hear more about how this works in terms of project management.

Open-source and proprietary project-management software are options that our new postdoc Matt Huculak is currently investigating, so I expect that he’ll have something to add to the discussion once he sees your post.