Revisiting File Sharing

Most cloud-based data-storage providers allow you to share folders with other users, as we learned in Chapter 6, “Disk Storage in the Clouds.” Using the shared folder, you can easily exchange photos, documents, and other digital content. In this way, users do not have to track and later manage a myriad of email attachments.

Within collaborative environments, however, users often need to edit the same document, sometimes at the same time. Fortunately, many cloud-based collaboration tools (such as Google Docs, Google Workspace, or Microsoft Office) now provide such simultaneous editing capabilities.

The Wiki

One of the most popular Web 2.0 tools for document sharing is the wiki, which lets users collaborate on web-based content. The best-known wiki is Wikipedia, the online user-content-driven encyclopedia, shown in FIGURE 7-7.

The address bar of the webpage reads as follows: en dot Wikipedia dot o r g slash wiki slash Cloud underscore computing. Not logged in, Talk, Contributions, Create account, and Log in are the buttons at top right of the page. In the left pane, under main page, contents, current events, random article, about Wikipedia, contact us, and donate are the options listed. Under Contribute, help, learn to edit, community portal, recent changes, and upload file are the options listed. Under tools, what links here, related changes, special pages, permanent link, page information, cite this page, and Wikidata item are the options listed. Print or export and Download as P D F are indicated at the bottom of the left pane. Article, talk, read, edit, and view history are the tabs at the top of the page. Search bar is at top right of the page.

FIGURE 7-7 Wikipedia provides the largest collection of web-based user-contributed and edited content.

Courtesy of Wikipedia. Cloud computing inset image created by Sam Johnston. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Using wiki software, users can edit shared content. After the edits are saved, the document’s new contents display on the web. Depending on the wiki software, changes to text may have to first be approved by a page moderator, or the wiki software may track edited versions of the content to make it easy to fall back to previous content, should users choose to discard a change or content addition.

Many wikis are public, accessible to all users on the web. Some wiki software, however, supports private content, which is well suited for company-based internal messaging and documents.

Advantages of using a wiki for shared content include the following:

  • Any member of the team can add or edit content.

  • Most users quickly learn how to edit content within the wiki.

  • Team members editing the wiki content can reside anywhere.

  • Edits to wiki content are immediate.

Disadvantages to using a wiki for shared content include the following:

  • Because any member can edit content, errant content can occur.

  • Public wikis are often the target of hacking and spam.

  • The wiki’s free-flowing format may lead to content that is disorganized.

  • Users are often suspicious of wiki content validity and accuracy.

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