5 ms·

> Another example is business productivity apps architected as web services. Early products like Salesforce were easier to access and cheaper to maintain than t

> Another example is business productivity apps architected as web services. Early products like Salesforce were easier to access and cheaper to maintain than their on-premise counterparts. Modern productivity apps like Google Docs, Figma, and Slack focus on things you simply couldn’t do before, like real-time collaboration and deep integrations with other apps. I'm not sure I'd consider any of these brand new things, even in the context of cloud nativity. CSCW works in particular go back to the mid-80s! They aren't new things, but iterations on old things -- the iterative gap is so large that they _feel_ new, but the changes they provided improved accessibility to existing functionality, not innovative new functionality. - Networked CRMs were preceded by so, so many database frontends. - Google Docs was bought-not-made, and its components were also preceded by peer-to-peer collaborative editing tools outside of the web browser (SubEthaEdit, but also Instant Update, Aspects, and other early 90s/00s groupware suites). - Collaborative drawing and design software go all the way back to Xerox PARC projects like Videodraw. - Slack wasn't even first of its breed!

enos_feedler 6y ago
I would also say that Google docs took the a traditional desktop word processor like Microsoft Word and put in a browser tab. Supporting multiple user edit sessions simultaneously was brand new, but not sure it was transformational in terms of expanding the word processor into something else.
- leetcrew 6y ago
  I would also question just how valuable concurrent editing of a text document is. it's cool that it's technically possible, but it doesn't seem that useful for multiple people to be editing the same sentence or paragraph in real time. in practice, I find that people divvy up the document into sections and each work on their assigned section independently. this makes google docs / office 365 a moderately lower friction version of everybody working in their own documents and copying changes to a master doc with version history, which has been a supported workflow in desktop word for quite a long time. similarly, slack can be pretty useful, but I doubt it feels revolutionary to anyone who grew up using IRC.
  - codetrotter 6y ago
    > this makes google docs / office 365 a moderately lower friction version of everybody working in their own documents and copying changes to a master doc with version history, which has been a supported workflow in desktop word for quite a long time. It’s more than just this. There is a big difference between authoring parts of the document alone, and being able to see the current state of the document as a whole at all times live while people are writing it.
    - charliemil4 6y ago
      The hawthorn effect is actually a negative influence of such collaborative writing in the general population, too.
      - codetrotter 6y ago
        I’m familiar with the Hawthorne effect but I don’t understand what you mean here. Could you clarify? Do you mean to say that collaborative document editing is perceived to be more efficient but that it is in fact not more efficient? Assuming that is what you meant, that may be true, but for me when working on a document with others there is more to it aside from saving time on writing together. Specifically, being able to see the document as a whole means that I can write sections of text that are more coherent with the rest of the document, and also that I can suggest changes in other people’s sections while we are working on it. Collaborative editing is also useful when discussing a document on teleconferencing or when we are in the same room. For example if we are talking about a budget and we all have the Google sheet open I can point to a cell or group of cells, say something about it and make a change immediately in accordance with what we conclude, and they can make concurrent edits elsewhere in the sheet for other parts of the sheet that are affected by our discussion.
  - nine_k 6y ago
    Concurrent independent editing is mostly useless. Concurrent commenting, discussing, suggesting and accepting suggestions / amendments is mightily useful.
  - 6y ago
- youngtaff 6y ago
  Took the traditional desktop word processor and chopped a bunch of features out. Unfortunately some of them, like captions for images / charts / diagrams, numbered headings and the like were really useful
- schwartzworld 6y ago
  I know a lot of people who adopted Google docs because it was A) free B) didn't require a download C) they had already bought into Gmail.
cma 6y ago
For Google docs shared editing predecessors, don't forget the mother of all demos from the 60s.

enos_feedler 6y ago

I would also say that Google docs took the a traditional desktop word processor like Microsoft Word and put in a browser tab. Supporting multiple user edit sessions simultaneously was brand new, but not sure it was transformational in terms of expanding the word processor into something else.

leetcrew 6y ago
I would also question just how valuable concurrent editing of a text document is. it's cool that it's technically possible, but it doesn't seem that useful for multiple people to be editing the same sentence or paragraph in real time. in practice, I find that people divvy up the document into sections and each work on their assigned section independently. this makes google docs / office 365 a moderately lower friction version of everybody working in their own documents and copying changes to a master doc with version history, which has been a supported workflow in desktop word for quite a long time. similarly, slack can be pretty useful, but I doubt it feels revolutionary to anyone who grew up using IRC.
- codetrotter 6y ago
  > this makes google docs / office 365 a moderately lower friction version of everybody working in their own documents and copying changes to a master doc with version history, which has been a supported workflow in desktop word for quite a long time. It’s more than just this. There is a big difference between authoring parts of the document alone, and being able to see the current state of the document as a whole at all times live while people are writing it.
  - charliemil4 6y ago
    The hawthorn effect is actually a negative influence of such collaborative writing in the general population, too.
    - codetrotter 6y ago
      I’m familiar with the Hawthorne effect but I don’t understand what you mean here. Could you clarify? Do you mean to say that collaborative document editing is perceived to be more efficient but that it is in fact not more efficient? Assuming that is what you meant, that may be true, but for me when working on a document with others there is more to it aside from saving time on writing together. Specifically, being able to see the document as a whole means that I can write sections of text that are more coherent with the rest of the document, and also that I can suggest changes in other people’s sections while we are working on it. Collaborative editing is also useful when discussing a document on teleconferencing or when we are in the same room. For example if we are talking about a budget and we all have the Google sheet open I can point to a cell or group of cells, say something about it and make a change immediately in accordance with what we conclude, and they can make concurrent edits elsewhere in the sheet for other parts of the sheet that are affected by our discussion.
- nine_k 6y ago
  Concurrent independent editing is mostly useless. Concurrent commenting, discussing, suggesting and accepting suggestions / amendments is mightily useful.
- 6y ago
youngtaff 6y ago
Took the traditional desktop word processor and chopped a bunch of features out. Unfortunately some of them, like captions for images / charts / diagrams, numbered headings and the like were really useful
schwartzworld 6y ago
I know a lot of people who adopted Google docs because it was A) free B) didn't require a download C) they had already bought into Gmail.

cma 6y ago

For Google docs shared editing predecessors, don't forget the mother of all demos from the 60s.