Document Sharing Three years of editorial experience in college taught me many things about document sharing. My editing experience was far from limited due either to my interest in a variety of subjects or to my indecisiveness during those college years-I'm not sure which. Not only did I edit for three different undergraduate journals, but also I had the gall to become the editor-in-chief of the pre-law and honors journals and to start an undergraduate health journal. No matter how different the subjects may have been, the same technical and document sharing challenges inevitably surfaced at similar stages in the editorial process. Since college, I have noticed that the editorial process and document sharing have filled large roles in my professional pursuits as well. I have therefore concluded two things: document sharing will always be a part of education, business, and virtually any other organization; and the lessons I have learned during and since my college editorial experience may be helpful to other professionals. Document Sharing Cookie Jar Picture in your mind a cookie jar. Do you remember how many hands reach into a cookie jar? With each hand that enters the cookie jar, the contents change. When one hand removes cookies, there are fewer cookies. When another hand refills the cookie jar, there are more cookies. When yet another hand digs around in the cookie jar to find the perfect cookie, there are generally a lot of broken and crumbled cookies left behind. Document sharing is all too similar to the cookie jar. A group or committee may work on a budget, a report, a survey, a research paper, a proposal, and maybe even a memo. The document is the cookie jar, and its elements are the cookies. In any committee, staff, or board, there are always the "removers," the "replacers," and the "diggers," and the contents of the final document often look very different from the document with which you began. When I was a child my mother used to play a game with me that included a song that would ask "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" Because of the many changes that take place in document sharing and the all too familiar ad hoc process with which document sharing takes place, this question frequently runs through my mind as I try to track down the changes that have been made. Document Sharing Software Solutions I have found that the best way to answer the questions of ad hoc document sharing is to use a document management service or a content management tool that tracks ad hoc document sharing. You may do what most people do in searching for the right document sharing software and type "document sharing" into Google and feel overwhelmed by the 20 million 800 thousand indexed pages of document sharing, or groupware, suites. There are easier ways. Try looking up "Digital Thread Technology", which places a tag in the metadata of any Microsoft program and tracks it over email and servers. This opens up a digital signature with emails, informing users where the most recent version is saved. When changes have been made in the cookie jar, nobody is left in the dark. Look up "Version History", which opens up a flow chart of the documents genealogy. This makes record keeping simple, especially when accounting for editorial changes. Version History displays where the document had been and when, who made changes and where it was saved, and how it reached its most recent stage. Instead of questions, users have all the answers. The cherry on top (this is obviously not part of the cookie jar example) is that versatile and effective document sharing software like this not only handles the ad hoc document sharing but also eliminates overhead costs associated with IT infrastructure. And, if I download it, then everyone with whom I share documents also shares in the benefits. |
