What is spreadsheet collaboration?

Writing the previous post about collaboration got me thinking about the concept of collaboration. I came to see that collaboration (and spreadsheet collaboration in particular) is not easy to define.

The wikipedia definition of collaboration is “all processes wherein people work together”. But does that mean that Google’s definition of collaboration is the best one? Does collaboration have to be simultanous work on the same spreadsheet or can it also be a group of people working in a non synchronized way to complete a spreadsheet-based task.

Is collaboration important in the design phase of the spreadsheet, when the structure of the tables, graphs, and charts is prepared, or in the data-entry phase?

Is chat a good enough medium to support collaboration or does a collaboration-enabled spreadsheet need an interface to VoIP software?

Should collaboration be a fully democratic process, in which everyone has an equal voice and equal authorization to edit every aspect of the spreadsheet-or should it be a moderated process, in which the spreadsheet owner can control both the right to speak and the extent to which collaborators can modify the spreadsheet?

Posted on September 19, 2006 by Yoav Ezer 
Filed Under Collaboration

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