Re: Google Doc

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:

So far today I have been browsing the templates developed for Google docs (not finding much useful to us) and it looks as if Google docs is a word processing/spreadsheet preparation system and not a platform intended to support collaborative brainstorming.

About a wiki: I worry about inhibiting frank discussion in this extremely early stage if the forum is viewable by the world. For instance we may soon be putting up a comparison of several financial firms' products, and later discussing the relative merits of various charities we may wish to associate ourselves with. However, this is just a matter of degree since our Google doc is hardly secure. Maybe a wiki that is "invited readers only" until we are further along?

I still plan to take the manual steps described earlier to improve the Google doc. and split off the financial material.

Scott, I clicked yes to enabling chat with you; and it's OK to initiate it any time, me being retired and all.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:54 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Sounds good. Meanwhile, I spoke to Scott and we were thinking it would be good if our contributors could easily hyperlink various concepts/project segments from one doc to another, so I'm going to look into setting up a wiki for us to use; this could replace Google Docs for us, providing a great deal more organizational opportunities while still being easy to use. It would also allow us to work with more transparency; others could see how our process works directly.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 11:48 PM, Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com> wrote:
I think splitting is a useful idea and in the morning I will split out investment management and see what the resulting documents look like. Since I can recapture prior versions of the document I don't see a risk to this. Also, if you go to 'settings' you can select to have new stuff appear in boldface (or so it said, I haven't been able to make this work for me yet, but I will try again tomorrow). Otherwise, I plan to address document complexity by adding a daily (or couple times weekly) update summary by me at the top of the document, adding in bigger & bolder headings to encourage contributors to put related material together, and going through and adding labels/tags to make it easier to find stuff. I am reluctant to rearrange items, since that would reduce readers' ability to appreciate the logic of the collaboration, but having the document branch into separate documents is OK in this regard, I think.

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 9:38 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:

Scott-

I've CC'd Clark in on this as we've actually just been talking about how to better organize these docs (which we'll be using at least for the next few months, so we do need to figure out a better system). Clark has a friend who might be able to help us with this; additionally, I just noticed that clicking the top right opens up a permanent chat log which we could utilize to better keep track of changes. Been meeting to get you two in touch anyway.

Also, Clark has agreed to run the Africa Development Project by helping to organize our priorities and just plain organize everything. I'll get back to you both if I think of any good methods by which to better use Google Docs, but will probably just wait to see what Clark and his associate comes up with. Also, I'm really not good at organization (founding organizations is a different skill set); perhaps you two could figure something out as well?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott Mintz <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:26 PM
Subject: Google Doc
To: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>

Barrett,

I'm new to Google docs. Is it possible to split the existing Doc into two separate ones? I understand the Google Doc approach is simply a temporary method for communication, but I'm already having difficulty following changes to the doc.

It would be great if we could create a separate document for all things related to investing as it specifically management of donations rather than choosing of charities.

Scott

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

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Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302