Today we tried to facilitate a group project using only Google Docs instead of direct, verbal communication. Interestingly the activity of of using Google Docs as a collaborative forum was even more instructive than even the activity that we were working on (evaluating user-based development and its risks).
One of the challenges that we immediately faced was one of immediacy. Faced with a blank page and no established framework. The team tried to use the google doc to coordinate our activities. The lack of immediate feedback led to disjointed conversations.
Additionally, we quickly figured out that comments were anonymous if not signed. This led to another challenge as authorship of each comment could not be clearly attributed.
In the end, we actually lost productive time because we had to wait as one team member created a framework in which we could all work.
Collaborative tools (like Google Docs), depend highly upon structure and a well-defined set of conventions in order to be effective business tools.
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