Introduction
This article explains the progression of file sharing and the benefits of Online Collaborative Spaces.
Contents
- Introduction
- Email Attachments
- Personal Cloud Drives
- Team Cloud Drives
- Online Collaborative Spaces
- Related Articles
Explanation
To understand the benefits of online collaboration spaces, it is helpful to look at the evolution of file sharing. Technology used to support file sharing can be viewed on a continuum as shown in the diagram below.
Where users work on the continuum is typically dependent on two criteria:
- The business practices of the organization/department and
- The user’s own comfort level with the technology.
The following sections explore the four technologies identified on the continuum:
Email Attachments
Email attachments have been around for decades. They represent the most common method used for file sharing. At Virginia Tech, there are two mail services that provide the ability to email attachments: Exchange Online and Gmail.
- How are email attachments used to support file sharing?
- In the typical scenario, users share a document with others by creating an email and then attaching the document to it.
- What are their benefits?
- Email attachments are convenient. Users are comfortable with this method which makes it easy for them to reply to an email and attach a document along with their message.
- What are their drawbacks?
- No ability to collaborate online. Email attachments represent a fixed, static copy of a document being shared. If the document is emailed to multiple people and each person sends back their comments on the document, then someone needs to merge the responses, update a new version of the document, and email it out again.
- No central copy of the final document is maintained. Finding the correct latest version of a document can be challenging with details such as who has the final copy and what search terms are needed to find it in your email.
- No central tracking of who has access to the document. With the document being shared as an attachment, there is no easy way to determine who has seen it or to include them in future updates of the document. Recipients may pass their original version of the document around and then the new recipients of that document may not be in the communication chain to receive updates.
- Securing the attachment can require additional steps. Passing compliant information, such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII) or Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) information, through email with an attachment requires that the attachment be encrypted. This can require the use of a personal digital certificate (PDC), a separate application to perform the encryption, or centralized rights management where the sending server encrypts the attachment. The options available to senders vary based on the mail service they use, such as Exchange Online or Gmail. This can lead to users forgetting to properly encrypt the document when sending.
Personal Cloud Drives
Personal Cloud Drives, like Microsoft OneDrive and Google My Drive, provide individual cloud storage options for users.
- How are personal cloud drives used to support file sharing?
- In the most common scenario, a user locates a document on a personal cloud drive, selects the sharing option, and then invites other users to the document.
- What are their benefits?
- The ability to collaborate online. Invited users with edit access can work together on the document in real time. All changes are tracked with different versions of the document stored in the document’s history by the application. Thus, the original creator of the document can rollback changes if needed.
- A central copy of the final document is maintained. The document and its history are stored in a single location.
- Access to the document is managed. The owner of the document can see a list of users with access and control who can view or edit the document.
- The online cloud environment protects the document. Documents stored in personal OneDrives or Google My Drives are encrypted at rest and in transit. This means that the documents shared in these locations may meet certain data compliance requirements. For a list of data compliance standards supported by each environment, please refer to the Microsoft (Office) 365, Google Workspace for Education, and Slack service entries in the IT Service Catalog.
- What are their drawbacks?
- Single owner. Although the documents can be shared with multiple users for collaboration purposes, only the owner of the personal cloud drive owns the document. If the owner leaves the university, the document could become unavailable to the original collaborators unless steps are taken to transfer the document to someone else on the team before the original owner’s departure.
- Finding the final copy of the document can be a challenge. Although a centralized version of the document exists, it can be hard to find it. For example, you may not know who originally shared the document with you and searching for the invite in your inbox by document name may be difficult to locate among your other messages.
Team Cloud Drives
Team Cloud Drives, like Google shared drives and SharePoint Online Document Libraries, provide users with shared centralized cloud storage.
Organizations will often use intranets to host team cloud drives for entire organizations. However, we discourage this approach in favor of Online Collaborative Spaces. For more information, take a look at What is the Difference between an Intranet and an Online Collaborative Space.
- How are team cloud drives used to support file sharing?
- In the most common scenario, a user creates or uploads a document into the team cloud drive where all team members can view and edit the document.
- What are their benefits?
- Team owned. The biggest advantage of team cloud drives over personal cloud drives is that the documents are owned by all members of the team. Thus, the departure of any one team member does not disrupt access to content.
- The ability to collaborate online. All team members can view and edit in real time documents stored on the team cloud drive. All changes are tracked with different versions of the document stored in the document’s history by the application. If needed, the team can choose to rollback changes.
- A central copy of the final document is maintained. The document and its history are stored in a single location.
- Access to the document is managed. All members of the team have full access to the document. If someone leaves the team, the user in question would also lose access to the document. Additionally, team members can extend the sharing of the document outside of the team. For example, at the document level, team members can choose to extend the sharing of the document with external collaborators as needed.
- The online cloud environment protects the document. Documents stored in Google shared drives and SharePoint Online Document Libraries are encrypted at rest and in transit. This means that the documents shared in these locations may meet certain data compliance requirements. For a list of data compliance standards supported by each environment, please refer to the Microsoft (Office) 365, Google Workspace for Education, and Slack service entries in the IT Service Catalog.
- What are their drawbacks?
- Documents are separated from other conversation channels. Although collaborators can discuss document-level changes within a shared file, other related conversations regarding the same project taking place in chat, through online meetings, and so forth are not stored in the same place as the document. This separation of the document from the location where the team is collaborating in other ways is the biggest drawback when comparing team cloud drives to Online Collaborative Spaces.
- If your organization is using the same centralized file share for everyone, then locating documents can be a challenge. As the scope of your centralized file share increases in size, it can be more difficult for users to locate the final versions of the documents they need among the layers of nested folders. Searching for documents by name or content can be helpful in overcoming this drawback.
- Team cloud drive ownership. Although all content and discussions belong to everyone on the team, it is important to note that the shared drive itself does have a concept of ownership. The person that first creates the Team Cloud Drive is the owner. This person should promote one or more members to be owners to ensure that more than one person owns the resource.
Online Collaborative Spaces
Online Collaborative Spaces provide teams with collaboration tools that support communication and file sharing in their own shared, centralized, cloud locations.
For a better understanding of Online Collaborative Spaces, we suggest reading “How to create an Online Collaborative Space for Your Team”.
- How are Online Collaborative Spaces used to support file sharing?
- In the most common scenario, a user develops the document in the team’s Online Collaborative Space which automatically stores the document in the team’s file share and notifies the team by chat of the document’s creation.
- What are their benefits?
- Collaboration and file sharing are integrated. With Online Collaborative Spaces, the team is working and communicating where the content is being shared and discussed. Chat feeds keep team members informed of discussions and the documents as they are being developed. If a more in-depth discussion is needed, any member of the team can launch an online meeting to directly talk about the issues with other team members.
- Team owned. All content in Online Collaborative Spaces is owned by all members of the team. Thus, the departure of any one team member does not disrupt access to content.
- A central copy of the final document is maintained at the team level. The document and its history are stored in a single location connected to a single team, i.e., the final version of the document on Project A is stored in the Project A Team’s Online Collaborative Space.
- Access to the document is managed. All members of the team have full access to the document. If someone leaves the team, the user in question would also lose access to the document. Additionally, team members can extend the sharing of the document outside of the team. For example, at the document level, team members can choose to extend the sharing of the document with external collaborators as needed.
- The online cloud environment protects the document. Documents stored in Google shared drives and Microsoft Teams are encrypted at rest and in transit. This means that the documents shared in these locations may meet certain data compliance requirements. For a list of data compliance standards supported by each environment, please refer to the Microsoft (Office) 365, Google Workspace for Education, and Slack service entries in the IT Service Catalog.
- Collaboration and file sharing are integrated. With Online Collaborative Spaces, the team is working and communicating where the content is being shared and discussed. Chat feeds keep team members informed of discussions and the documents as they are being developed. If a more in-depth discussion is needed, any member of the team can launch an online meeting to directly talk about the issues with other team members.
- What are their drawbacks?
- Online Collaborative Space ownership. Although all content and discussions belong to everyone on the team, it is important to note that Online Collaborative Space itself does have a concept of ownership. The person that first creates the Online Collaborative Space is the owner. This person should promote one or more members to be owners to ensure that more than one person owns the resource.
Related Articles
- What is the Difference between an Intranet and an Online Collaborative Space
- How to create an Online Collaborative Space for Your Team