Working in real-time

“Real” real-time working functionality is perhaps the most interesting new feature in Google Docs, enabling truly synchronous working with all contributors’ edits appearing as they type, character by character.

Experiencing this for the first time is rather a shock to your word processing habits formed over the years! It challenges your existing practice and forces you to re-evaluate. You become distinctly aware that others may be watching your every keystroke, whether new word, typo, deletion or false start. However, once your own personal paranoias are overcome, there’s something interesting and creative re. watching someone else’s text appear, observing their approach and at times, predicting their patterns of thought.

Synchronous working is nothing new. No doubt you regularly work face-to-face with others, and perhaps communicate in real-time with remote collaborators using Instant Messenger, telephone or VOIP. However, the “in the same room” comparison is perhaps best here; real-time collaboration in Google Docs allows you and other authors to exist in the same online space, working towards a shared purpose and, importantly, with effective tools available to work, engage, communicate and interact as required.

Improved communication tools

In our collaborative writing guide, written last summer, we wrote that: “Additionally, some web2tools for collaborative writing allow users to add comments to a document, or to text chat synchronously with co-authors.” Both have been improved and updated in Google Docs.

Chat with your collaborators

If you and others are working on a document at the same time, it’s great to be able to engage with them and discuss the document you are working on. When more than one author is editing the document, Google Docs now shows a right side-panel indicating the people “currently editing”. Clicking the drop-down arrow opens up a chat window – immediately useful! Note however that the chat conversation isn’t saved as part of the document, and therefore cannot be referred back to from session to session.

Make comments

Improved commenting in Google Docs has been one of the demanded features from users. Using them is now far more usable and effective, with the ability to add comments and move them around. They can also be used synchronously (yes, just as in the main document window, text appears in real-time) or asynchronously, with authors able to add threaded replies at their convenience. However, note that comments need to be attached to text within the document, and deletion of that text also results in the removal of attached comments.

Improved formatting

Additional functional updates have been made to Google Docs. There’s improved document formatting and layout of embedded images, the option to add margins and tab stops plus better import/export fidelity.

Alarmingly, the heading structure option appears to’ve been removed from the toolbar, encouraging users to edit specific text with specific font, bold etc. information – definitely a backward step. (Note however that heading options are still available from the ‘Format’ drop-down menu, or by using the keyboard shortcuts.) Also, there’s no longer the ability to edit or attach Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to documents. We hope these are temporary measures, as Google launches the new version.

Our reactions from (initial) practice

Steve and I began writing this post in real-time, using the new version of Google Docs, and have since independently returned to the document to add additional content and make edits. Here are some of our reactions:

On first use, working concurrently in real-time certainly ‘feels’ very collaborative, there is a sense of togetherness, creativity and immediacy that you wouldn’t get if writing in isolation (even if at the same time!). As the document grows, you become drawn into the collaborative process – at times discussing a specific section or at others observing your co-author’s activity or concentrating on the specific text you’re writing. The real-time nature also adds a level of commitment to the task at hand, with authors less likely to be distracted by external communications or activities.

Our experiment, beginning with a blank document, was somewhat forced and unrealistic. However, this perhaps highlights the importance and usefulness of having a skeleton heading structure within a document, providing a framework for the collaborative writing, and the option for individual authors to concentrate on specific sections.

As with the adoption of many new technologies, existing practices are questioned. Clear communication and work-flow are vital. For example, we take for granted the need to write, edit and review a document. However, even with only two authors, we began using the Instant Messenger panel for clarification regarding progress and to ask questions such as, “Are you ready for me to review this section?”

Finally, we both wondered upon the situation that would demand the need for real-time document editing, posing that short documents requiring swift sign-off might perhaps be most obvious. However, instead of considering specific use cases, it’s perhaps better to think of the real-time functionality as enhancing the collaborative process, providing the ability to take advantage of a situation when authors happen to co-edit a single document synchronously.

Updating the Collaborative Writing Web2practice guide

We will undoubtedly update the Web2practice Collaborative Writing guide, including further mention of working in real-time. However, all of the key points still stand, including the following suggestion towards ‘fluent’ practice: “Selecting the right tool for the job is an apt statement in today’s digital age.”

One important function that may be affected by the new features is version history; with so many concurrent edits, it’s unclear how Google Docs differentiates between versions of a document, or if it is able to keep track of sections of content added or edited by a specific author.

Finally, if you know of researchers, teachers or administrators using the real-time functionality of Google Docs (or any similar web tool) please do get in touch – We’re always looking for examples of innovative practice to feature in these guides, passing on experiences to new users.

Postscript

This post was written in one document, by two authors, in multiple locations, on five different computers and using three different web browsers!

The Visitors & Residents principle developed by Dave White of Oxford University describes a framework for assessing people’s motivation towards the use of web technology. This provides a useful way to frame the approach to training we’ve taken with web2practice. Many of the technologies we deal with are residential platforms, meaning that it’s hard to see their real benefits until you’ve lived there for a while. So how can we best explain the potential of such technologies to new users?

Traditional training has often involved a fair bit of ‘manual labour’ – following a manual of instruction telling you what buttons to press to make something happen. For many of the current generation of web2.0 tools, that approach is no longer valid. For a start, they tend to be intuitive enough to make a manual largely irrelevant. More importantly though, they are more than just tools to do a specific job – they are platforms that enable you to carry out a range of online activities.

Let’s take Twitter as an example. When you first sign up, there’s very little to see or do, which sometimes leads people to dismiss it (I know I did). We can think of this like a new house – until you start living there, filling it with your own stuff and inviting your friends around, it isn’t really your home. So with Twitter, you need to spend time there and make the effort to meet the residents to realise the value of being in that community.

So our approach to training in technologies like Twitter that require a regular online presence is more about stimulating interest, showing potential and motivating people to explore the technologies for themselves in the context of their own practice. As such, we also try to check our enthusiasm for technology with an understanding of the implications of adopting these tools. It’s simple to sign up for a new tool, but it takes time and effort to make good use of it. For some people, being an occasional visitor might fit their practice, but for those aiming to become residents, we need to be clear on what this requires.

Perhaps we also need to try to change people’s and institutions’ expectations of what ‘training’ is, what it can achieve and how it needs to be supported after the event. This is something we’ll be discussing at the forthcoming UCISA masterclass on Fresh ideas for successful IT training, but we’d be interested to hear your thoughts here too, so please do comment.

Photo credit: Based on the image empty new room downloaded from istockphoto and used under licence to JISC Netskills.

Our session will outline the opportunities and challenges for training providers with the emergence of an ever-increasing range of web 2.0 technologies. It is often assumed that such technologies are intuitive, but does that mean no formal training or guidance is required? Where should new users begin? What is the best tool for a particular purpose? What do they need to know to use these in practice? And what are the risks?

The web2Practice guides aim to support an approach to web2.0 training that is more about inspiration and motivation than what buttons to press. Delegates will have the opportunity to explore these guides in a practical session and to discuss how they could be used in practice.

Event details

UCISA masterclass: Fresh ideas for successful IT training
Oxford University, 9 December 2009.

http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/ssg/usg/Events/2009/trainingmasterclass.aspx