Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Experience with community use of Dropbox?

[Elph Morgan (elph]

I use Dropbox for one of the departments at my work. 8 people. All logging
in with the same account. A paid 50 Gig account. It does work very well.

There are some issues. And these apply to multiple accounts sharing folders
or using one account. First, because files are on your computer (or device)
if you delete them then they delete out of everyone's box. They can be
un-deleted from the web interface but this takes vigilance. Second, if the
files are going to be edited be aware that Dropbox does not take kindly to
simultaneous editing. For this Google Docs would be a better choice.

Both of these issues can be addressed by having clear guidelines for
deleting and editing. For instance, rename the file with the word EDITING
while working on it.

-elph
Great Oak Cohousing - Ann Arbor MI

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 10:13 AM, Oz <oz [at] songaia.com> wrote:

>
> I recently began using Dropbox, a tool which I've found pretty useful for
> file sharing and was wondering about whether other communities have
> experience with this commercial product. If you've used it IN YOUR
> COMMUNITY, I'd love to hear more.
>
> BACKSTORY
>
> Songaia Cohousing started out trying to share files on the Windows NT
> platform, but several people had a very hard time maintaining access on
> different machines - and our techie folks quickly got tired trying to
> support it. Then we tried SharePoint, also running on Windows NT - another
> frustrating experience given the poor Macintosh support. Lately, we've been
> using Google Docs - but that really seems far better suited for
> collaborative editing rather than just simple file sharing.
>
> DROPBOX
>
> What I find most seductive about Dropbox is its very strong cross-platform
> support. I can access a simple shared folder across my Desktop, Laptop,
> Android Phone, and iPad. The Dropbox software looks just like a file folder
> system and integrates right into your normal workflow, e.g., from any
> application, you can save or open a file directly into a shared, Dropbox
> folder.
>
> You can also access your dropbox from their website, so you can get to your
> files from any device capable of accessing the web, i.e., if you're
> somewhere without your own computer, you can still get to your files.
>
> Dropbox lures you into their online service by giving you 2 Gigs of storage
> and making it easy for you to share files with friends/family - they have
> to get an account as well. The FREE service advertises 2 Gig of storage.
> They also sell larger amounts of storage, e.g., 50 Gigs costs $99 per year.
>
> You can sign up for Dropbox by going to their website or using this link:
>
> http://db.tt/rW49VX1k
>
> Note: they are using a viral marketing approach, so if you use the link
> above, then my free storage space increases by .5 Gig per new account (up
> to a maximum of 16 Gigs). It seems to me that having a few larger Dropbox
> accounts might be a nifty, low-cost way to have a bunch of free cloud
> storage.
>
> Thanks for any insights on using this tool in your community,
>
> Oz Ragland
> ozragland.com
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