Comments on: Writeboard: Class projects reinvented

By: Henk Kleynhans

Henk Kleynhans — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:12:50 +0000

Hi Matthew, I stopped using Writeboards the moment we were able to use Google Docs. (and now use Google Sites for project documentation).

The problem with Writeboards is that the process is all wrong:

1. View (assuming it’s an existing document

2. Click Edit, to edit a paragraph

3. Wait for the editor to load

4. Scroll down & Squint in order to find the paragraph that you wanted to edit. (let’s say you want to insert a small table, for which you’ll need to know HTML)

5. Click ‘Save as newest version’ and wait again to see latest version.

6. Oops! You forgot a closing somewhere! (or to bold a word, or a numbered list looks wrong)

7. Click Edit again…

And so on. Surprising that 37Signals got it so wrong, considering their focus on making their products customer friendly.

By: Matthew Guay

Matthew Guay — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:51:31 +0000

So were you using Writeboard or PBwiki? I don’t really remember with PBwiki, but it seems both of them didn’t highlight who did what. Writeboard did list revisions so with the name of the person who had edited a section, though, and you could easily compare 2 revisions to see what they had added/edited. So that was helpful.

Nice to see you here, and let me know if I can change/add/improve anything! I’ll try to have frequent content/updates, so check back!

By: Louis Davis

Louis Davis — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:01:18 +0000

Matt,

I had to deal with the same wiki in my final class at UNT this past semester. One thing that was challenging was that revisions were difficult to note unless someone chose another color or font that distinguished them from others. One nice part was that it allowed you to see who was really working on the team project. It was not hard to figure out who was doing their part anyway.