Writeboard as a collaborative tool for online document editing

Collaboration

Assessment of Writeboard

Nature of Collaborative Project

The Writeboard has now been integrated into the 37 Signals Basecamp text docs application, which provides a greater depth and breadth of collaboration tools than had been the case when the application was stand-alone. The nature of the collaborative project was the writing of a term paper on the United States Postal Service that included an analysis of their competitive position. This included an extensive level of collaboration and communication in creating the document outline, writing, editing and finalizing it with exhibits.

Summary Evaluation

Writeboard delivers the basic functions needed for completing online collaboration sessions and programs. It is evident in evaluating this application that in a company or larger organization, its collaborative functionality could deliver a strong Return on Investment (ROI) (Geisler, 2003). Further, Writeboard's ability to host interactive conversations differentiates this application from many other potentially competitive forms of collaboration as well. The strengths of this applications are its portability across platforms and accessibility through the browser, ease of use and support for highly interactive editing sessions. Weaknesses include the lack of advanced editing tools that a native Microsoft Word one-on-one editing session would have if two or more team members were working together, lack of support for comparative analysis of versions, and a lack of support for more effective data extraction and integration. Compared to computer-based applications such as Word or e-mail, Writeboard I superior in that meetings and discussions can be planned and completed much more efficiently. This application however is best for smaller, more focused documents. it's been evident that the longer and more complex the document, the greater the amount of editing and collaboration required. For longer, more complex documents, face-to-face communication and collaboration work best. These experiences were with the same team members, on comparable projects that had been completed early in-person before.