Page 95 -

Chapter 2 Collaboration Information Systems
94
You can improve your collaboration activity even more by combining Google Drive with
Google+.
Google Drive is free and very easy to use. Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive
are all far superior to exchanging documents via email or via a file server. If you are not using
one of these three products, you should. Go to http://drive.google.com, www.dropbox.com, or www.
onedrive.com to check them out. You’ll find easy-to-understand demos if you need additional
instruction.

Shared Content with Version Control

Version management systems improve the tracking of shared content and potentially eliminate
problems caused by concurrent document access. They do not, however, provide version control,
the process that occurs when the collaboration tool limits, and sometimes even directs, user activity.
Version control involves one or more of the following capabilities:
• User activity limited by permissions
• Document checkout
• Version histories
• Workflow control

Microsoft SharePoint is a large, complex, and very robust application for all types of col-
laboration. It has many features and functions, including all of those just listed. It also contains
features for managing tasks, sharing non-Office documents, keeping calendars, publishing blogs,
and many more capabilities. Some organizations install SharePoint on their own Windows serv-
ers; others access it over the Internet using SharePoint Online. Office 365 Professional and other
versions of Office 365 include SharePoint.
SharePoint is an industrial-strength product, and if you have an opportunity to use it, by all
means learn to do so. SharePoint is used by thousands of businesses, and SharePoint skills are in
high demand. The latest version is SharePoint 2013; we will illustrate its use here. Consider the
SharePoint implementation of the four functions listed.

Permission-Limited Activity

Monitoring and vetting With SharePoint (and other version control products), each team member is given an account
collaborators can help stop with a set of permissions. Then shared documents are placed into shared directories, sometimes
malicious insiders. The Security called libraries. For example, on a shared site with four libraries, a particular user might be given
Guide on pages 104–105 discusses read-only permission for library 1; read and edit permission for library 2; read, edit, and delete
why monitoring user behavior has
become necessary. permission for library 3; and no permission even to see library 4.

Document Checkout

With version control applications, document directories can be set up so that users are required
to check out documents before they can modify them. When a document is checked out, no other
user can obtain it for the purpose of editing it. Once the document has been checked in, other users
can obtain it for editing.
Figure 2-19 shows a screen for a user of Microsoft SharePoint 2013. The user is checking out
the document UMIS 8e Chapter 2. Once it has been checked out, the user can edit it and return it
to this library. While it is checked out, no other user will be able to edit it, and the user’s changes
will not be visible to others.
With SharePoint, Microsoft manages concurrent updates on office documents (Word, Excel,
etc.) and documents need not normally be checked out. In Figure 2-19, the user has checked out an
Acrobat PDF (indicated by a green arrow next to the PDF icon), which is not an Office document.