I think the thing that needs to be realised is that online collaboration is not merely the same as file sharing - particularly in the construction industry.
It's only at certain small parts of the overall construction process (from design through construction and then commissioning) that "collaboration" can be reduced to distributing files: typically where the files in question are "Issued for Construction" or "Issued for Review" - the formal gates in the process.
The rest of the time, as the documents are developed, and interpreted, collaboration (particularly in an online sense) means that additional information needs to be conveyed with the drawings to provide context and/or revision without the formal issue of a new revision of a drawing or document, or even a redline markup.
Some examples of these sorts of situations:
- Where as-built changes (i.e. where changes have been made on site from the "approved" drawings) need to be incorporated into drawings which are then handed over with the completed project
- When a drawing needs to be clarified between site and the design office.
- Where a contractual clause needs to be varied on a subcontract, because both parties agree it might be mutually beneficial to do so.
- Where a initial draft of a drawing needs to accept the input from multiple engineering disciplines in order to produce a final drawing.
These situations - which are, by far, the most common type of situations in construction - are ones where the transfer of documents is insufficient to communicate the context and changes which another person needs to understand to provide input. These are the situations where email comes into its own on the construction project - particularly if done through a document control system so the audit trail is established.
I think the future of construction collaboration will look a lot more like Google Wave than DropBox. Until then, email will hold an important role in any construction project - despite it being a shitty medium to share controlled documents, but because it can surround those documents with further information and context in the easiest way possible.
It also depends if your trying to attempt some collaboration for a short period of time, most people would rather not have to learn a new system for a short/ small project.
Everyone has an email and is comfortable with it, it may be hard to convince non tech people that a web collaboration tool is the way to go.
There is a lot of upside to them, with time I guess collaboration methods other than email will become common, especially with Google Wave on the way.
Nice write-up and in the end everyone needs to admit that email is still the way most people go; even if it is just to tell them that they need to log in to the online collab tool because there has something changed.
One question I have though is how far you have to go with -not- preventing user's mistakes. I miss some concrete examples (except for the Little Britain sketch).
in the end everyone needs to admit that email is still the way most people go
I think this is right. For us, it's collaboration tool and email, not collaboration tool or email.
We're using email + Google Docs -- pretty barebones, but the basic mechanisms work. This is for a loose, geographically distributed, sometimes amorphous group that is very resistant to adopting and converging on new technology tools -- not due to technophobia-- people are too busy doing experiments, writing grants, etc. Every new tool has high activation energy.
[Side comment: One reason I don't like non-email collaboration tools because they make it hard to own my history. With email, I have my own copy of what I was told and what I said. I'll have it after I leave the job; I have it when I'm offline. I can search it. I can do what I want with it. It won't disappear when the hosting company goes offline, or the hosting tool becomes obsolete. I don't think other people care about this as much as I do...]
- Construction collaboration is all about official issues of files (i.e. "I issue these 10 files to you for comment"). We make it easy to fix an issue after it's happened, if there were errors in the issue.
- If you're invited to the wrong company, you can easily be moved to the right company
- If someone named your company incorrectly when they invited you, you can rename your company
One immediate thought I had about the e-mail problem is how online-dating sites deal with it.
Now, I realize online collaboration is completely different user motivation. Online dating preys upon a somewhat already-desperate userbase.
But it's also genius how they deal with the e-mail problem. For example, with Ok Cupid, they include a giant one-click "Login" link with e-mail updates. There's no password re-entry. With other sites, they send you just enough information about a connection that makes you want to sign back in again, but not enough information to let you contact that other person directly via e-mail.
It's only at certain small parts of the overall construction process (from design through construction and then commissioning) that "collaboration" can be reduced to distributing files: typically where the files in question are "Issued for Construction" or "Issued for Review" - the formal gates in the process.
The rest of the time, as the documents are developed, and interpreted, collaboration (particularly in an online sense) means that additional information needs to be conveyed with the drawings to provide context and/or revision without the formal issue of a new revision of a drawing or document, or even a redline markup.
Some examples of these sorts of situations: - Where as-built changes (i.e. where changes have been made on site from the "approved" drawings) need to be incorporated into drawings which are then handed over with the completed project - When a drawing needs to be clarified between site and the design office. - Where a contractual clause needs to be varied on a subcontract, because both parties agree it might be mutually beneficial to do so. - Where a initial draft of a drawing needs to accept the input from multiple engineering disciplines in order to produce a final drawing.
These situations - which are, by far, the most common type of situations in construction - are ones where the transfer of documents is insufficient to communicate the context and changes which another person needs to understand to provide input. These are the situations where email comes into its own on the construction project - particularly if done through a document control system so the audit trail is established.
I think the future of construction collaboration will look a lot more like Google Wave than DropBox. Until then, email will hold an important role in any construction project - despite it being a shitty medium to share controlled documents, but because it can surround those documents with further information and context in the easiest way possible.