Classification Notice for Typing in Shared Doc
A shared document is open. One person is typing in it. The other people have stopped typing and are watching the cursor move.
CLASSIFICATION NOTICE RE: Shared document passive observation during editing TYPE: Sequential behavior in an asynchronous medium
The Technology
The shared document allows multiple people to type simultaneously. Each person has a colored cursor. Each person's cursor moves in real time as they type. Changes made by one person are visible to all others within approximately one second.
The technology was designed for collaborative simultaneous editing.
The Observed Behavior
In group settings where a shared document is used for meeting notes, proposals, or collaborative writing, the typical behavior is:
One person types. Other people watch.
The other people are not unable to type. Their cursors are present. The document accepts input from all of them. The other people are not typing because one person is already typing and beginning to type creates a social situation: two people typing in the same document simultaneously produces a visual of competing inputs.
The Classification
The behavior is classified as: sequential participation in an asynchronous medium. The technology permits simultaneity. The social context creates hesitation before overlap.
The hesitation is not wrong. In some documents (planning, proposals), simultaneous editing is efficient. In others (meeting notes, narrative documents), the sequential pattern produces more coherent output.
The Recommendation
For list-style documents: simultaneous editing is efficient, add items in parallel. For narrative or sequential documents: one primary editor, others adding comments or using suggestions mode.
The current behavior (watching the typing) is appropriate for meeting notes and is inefficient for brainstorming documents.
The document type is not always identified before the watching begins.