Social software
Currently, there are many jobs that require that two or more persons have to work together. These teams, when writing a report, an article or any type document, need to agree which part of the document is going to be written by whom. This can be a problem because many copies of the same document may be used, and also many different versions of the same work can appear.
Tools that have been available for many years are shared folders. These folders are stored in servers located online, and documents that are saved in them are available for anyone that has been granted the appropriate permissions.
In recent years, social software have appeared. They allow not only saving and sharing document, but also editing them online, and not only by a single person at a time, but by as much users as needed.
Google Drive
Google tools can help researchers in their work, because they allow continuos access to any necessary document that has been correctly stored. This access allows not only reading, but also editing, creating new documents,...
If these documents, folders,... are correctly shared and organised, research teams can work faster and more efficiently, than if every researcher works by its own and access to documents is dependant on specific members of the team
Google has many different applications for those who create an account. These applications include Documents, Sheets, Presentations, Calendars, Drive,...
As a conclusion, a well organised team, where every member has a Google account, can work fluently in a collaborative way.
In my opinion, Google teams have work very hard in the last years to create all the applications that are available nowadays, and are continuously working updating them and creating new useful applications. Like any other tool, if they are used properly, they strengthen research and many other jobs. But if same basic security steps are not followed, work may be exposed to inappropriate users. Furthermore, being dependant of an external server is a risky way of working, so it would be desirable that security copies of folders and their content were made in personal hard disk, to be sure that work will be secured in case of any online server would fail.
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