Information Services and Systems

Sharing files and collaborating

Image by http://thegoldguys.blogspot.com/

Cloud computing now means that you can:

•Work across different platforms and devices

• Share files with others

• Back up your files and research material

Information Services and Systems

Be aware of

• Free tools can vanish.• Technical glitches• Not designed as securely as internal

organisation systems so need to be careful with sensitive data.

Information Services and Systems

• Free version = 2GB space• Extremely popular = 50m+ users• Software install or access also via the web• Store files of any type: photos, word

documents etc.

Information Services and Systems

Information Services and Systems

Google Drive (Docs)

• 5GB free storage• Software download available (Dropbox-style)• Google Docs is online Office-style suite = Word

documents, spreadsheets, presentations so has editing facilities

• Easy to share and collaborate on a document

Information Services and Systems

Google Drive / Docs

Information Services and Systems

• Note taking software• Software to install plus you can access

material via a web site.• Upload up to 60 MB data a month in free

version. Can buy extra space and additional features.

• Good for organizing snippets of information from different places.

Information Services and Systems

Information Services and Systems

• David Parry, an assistant professor of emergent media and communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, said he uses Dropbox for both scholarly reading and keeping track of documents for the courses he teaches. "The key for me is I store all my syllabuses there," he toldme. "Anytime someone has a question about a syllabus, I have it—anywhere."

Richard Johnston @DrRichJohnston1h• *Timely X-ray vid from PhD student Laura Klaxon* RT @loobags89: @

DrRichJohnston video is uploading to shared folder on Dropbox

Case studies

Information Services and Systems

Case studies•  Kim Mann shares her experience here of using Google Drive to write a conference 

panel summary with long-distance colleagues. 

• Collaborative writing with a Google Drive document worked amazingly well. The best thing about it wasn’t that it had cool features (it does) or that it was “fun” to use (like some technology can be). No, the best thing about it was that the technology never felt like it got in the way of our collaboration.

• In Google Drive you can also view a history of the comments made on a document, so even “resolved” comments are preserved.

• http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2013/03/04/collaborating-on-a-conference-panel-with-google-drive/

Information Services and Systems

Collaborating on a book

– Courtney Greene and Elizabeth Ruane

Found Google docs great for collaborating. Final version had to be in Word for publisher and

had problems with references so switched to dropbox for final edits.http://crln.acrl.org/content/72/8/454.full

Information Services and Systems

Evernote case studies• Historian – way to collect sources – web clippings, pdfs, document scans

and photos

• Astronomer – as a lab notebook – keep instructions, notes, results and share with colleagues

• Academic technology consultant – for academic organizing – keeps ideas, e-mails about research projects and also notes on grant writing and committee work. Conference travel documents

• Ph.D. Student – digital photos of conference posters and business cards since fewer people give handouts these days plus notes on conversations he has with presenters and other attendees.

• http://www.academicpkm.org/2013/07/30/how-exactly-do-people-use-evernote-in-academia/