I like the idea of being able to share documents. In fact, I created the beginning of a document that I may use for a personal project. I can see where using these shared documents could be very helpful for task force members. I had a little trouble creating the document because the size of print kept changing back to the original size each time I started a new line, even though I chose a different size; I had to change the size on every line. A pain!
I listened to an NPR article the other week that was talking about shared documents and documents and other materials such as e-mails that are stored in clouds rather than personal computers. The issue is that there is no guarantee that one can always be guaranteed access to these documents; they are at the mercy of the provider, and if the provider denies access, you are completely out of luck. Many people are not reading use agreements before using a provider's "cloud" and thus have no idea they no longer own the documents stored there; they are now owned by the provider.
The other concern I thought about is that, as a supervisor, I like to track the work of my employees (i.e. know what each person contributes) so that I can hold them accountable. I wonder how that happens when each person is just going in and making changes. Is there some sort of tracking that tells you what changes each person made?
Still, it seems like a great tool for collaborative work, as long as people realize the limitations.
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