Document collaboration with distributed teams can be a bit of a headache, as I’ve noted in previous posts. No doubt, if you’ve ever tried it yourself, you don’t need me to remind you. More tools are available than ever before for getting this kind of work done, but with a plethora of choices comes a conundrum. What kind of tool works best for collaborating on a single document? A specialized web app, a wiki, something like iWork.com that integrates with your word processing program, or a Google Docs/Zoho Writer shared document? I’ve yet to find a definite answer, but not for lack of trying.
Revizr is a new app that combines wiki elements with change tracking features that preserves the integrity of your original document, so you can see exactly what your collaborators have added (or taken away) from your copy. And it does so in an app that’s so easy to use, you’re actually using it the moment you visit its homepage for the first time. In order to manipulate your own documents, and work together with others, you will have to sign up, but if you’re just looking for a taste of what Revizr can do before you enroll, the trial is the site itself. Read the rest of this entry »
A while back I reviewed TextFlow, an Adobe AIR application that allows you to establish a collaborative document editing workflow quickly and easily, without messing about with servers or larger enterprise solutions. Recently, the folks behind TextFlow introduced a version with editing in the browser, so people don’t have to have AIR installed to join in and collaborate.
I liked the original version of TextFlow, but it ended up not being very useful precisely because no one I wanted to work with was particularly interested in having AIR installed on their machines. Not that they were actively against it, either, just that they didn’t feel it was worth the bother for just this app (obviously I’m not talking about TweetDeck or Twhirl users here!). Now they can edit documents directly in their browser via a private link, so they don’t need to mess about with AIR to help out with the collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of recent events brought the issue of working for free into sharp focus for me. First, there was the news via one of my close friends that a popular blog, whose content I very much enjoy, solicited only unpaid submissions, only offering a “byline” as the motivation for would-be posters. It surprised me, considering the source, who would seem well able to pay contributors.
Second, the same issue came up at a recent installment of #editorchat, a weekly group meeting held on Twitter for professional writers and editors hosted by @milehighfool and @LydiaBreakfast. The question was whether writers ever did work just for the byline, exposure, and/or clips for their portfolio, and what people thought of that kind of activity. In general, the group was very averse to it, because it encourages publications to seek free submissions instead of paying writers. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes, the way to maximize the value of teamwork is to have as little team, and as much work as possible. This is especially true when teams or partners are geographically distant from one another. Live collaboration in such situations is logistically difficult, and stressful for all involved. Tracking changes in a Word document is one way to get around this, but doing it that way, there’s really only one person working on one document at any given time. TextFlow now provides an alternative.
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live blogging an event
I recently live-blogged a 3-day conference. Gearing up for the event, I posted here about the equipment I was bringing as well as musings about the dynamics of live blogging. While I’ve live blogged parts of events and have Power-Twittered a conference before, this was my first full-scale, solo, multimedia live-blogging project for a client.
The live blogging was a success. In fact, the client was caught up in the excitement of seeing posts showing up literally in the middle of sessions with quotes and commentary about the topics discussed that they finally “got” what a blog could be.
Everyone at the conference was fired up to see images from the sessions and events and video clips of themselves or their fellow conference attendees waxing philosophical about the conference proceedings.
Here are my key lessons from the three days. For anyone whose work will take them into the realm of live blogging, I hope these prove helpful.
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Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
