Collaboration with Dropbox
Jun 02, 2009 Filed in: Internet
Kareen Rozen and I recently completed the first public draft of our paper on monitoring with collective memory. One of the key tools that helped us stay productive is Dropbox, a new web-based service that lets you synchronize a folder across several computers and among several users. Dropbox was worked so well for us that I’m now starting to use it with my other coauthors, and recommend it to everyone I know.
The magic all works behind the scenes over the network. Every time you change a file in your Dropbox, the change is uploaded to the cloud within seconds if you’re online; if you’re offline your changes will upload the next time you connect.
If you have multiple computers, you can install Dropbox on all of them, and sign them all in to the same Dropbox account. Whenever you change a file in your Dropbox on one computer, the changes will propagate to the rest of them within seconds (or as soon as they connect to the Internet). So Dropbox works great as a synchronization tool for a single user.
Dropbox also has a web interface, so you can access your files even when you’re working on someone else’s computer. One key feature that you access through the web interface is the ability to restore an older version of a file that has been changed or deleted. Dropbox stores the entire history of all the changes you made, so it works great as a backup tool for a single user. (Update 8/15/09: Due to a recent change, free Dropbox accounts now store previous versions of changed or deleted files for only 30 days.)
What happens if you both edit the same file at the same time? Unfortunately Dropbox can’t magically combine your changes together. Instead, it creates two conflicted versions, so at least you don’t lose your work. You’ll have to integrate your changes back into a single file manually. If you’re working on an article in LaTeX, you can break your article up into separate files, one for each section, using the \input command. That way you and your coauthor can work on different sections at the same time without generating a version conflict.
On the Mac, Dropbox works especially well with Growl. If you have Growl installed, Dropbox will use it to notify you when your collaborator makes any changes. Growl notifications are particularly nice because they pop up unobtrusively to tell you what you need to know, but don’t require any interaction and don’t get in the way of what you’re doing.
https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTU3NTkzOTk
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Single-user features
Here’s how it works. You sign up for a Dropbox account, which gives you 2 GB of online storage for free. Then you install the Dropbox software, which on Mac OS X consists of an invisible background application and a discreet menu bar icon. On Windows, it manifests as one of those unreadable little icons in the bottom right corner. In the Dropbox preferences, you decide where you want your Dropbox folder. I put mine in ~/Documents. You can create folders and files inside your Dropbox just like any other folder on your system.The magic all works behind the scenes over the network. Every time you change a file in your Dropbox, the change is uploaded to the cloud within seconds if you’re online; if you’re offline your changes will upload the next time you connect.
If you have multiple computers, you can install Dropbox on all of them, and sign them all in to the same Dropbox account. Whenever you change a file in your Dropbox on one computer, the changes will propagate to the rest of them within seconds (or as soon as they connect to the Internet). So Dropbox works great as a synchronization tool for a single user.
Dropbox also has a web interface, so you can access your files even when you’re working on someone else’s computer. One key feature that you access through the web interface is the ability to restore an older version of a file that has been changed or deleted. Dropbox stores the entire history of all the changes you made, so it works great as a backup tool for a single user. (Update 8/15/09: Due to a recent change, free Dropbox accounts now store previous versions of changed or deleted files for only 30 days.)
Multi-user features
Sure it’s great as a single-user synchronization and backup tool. But Dropbox’s killer feature is the ability to share subfolders in your Dropbox with other Dropbox users. To share a folder, just invite your collaborator using Dropbox’s web interface. Once she accepts your invitation, your shared folder will show up in her Dropbox. Any time one of you makes a change, the other one will get the update within seconds.What happens if you both edit the same file at the same time? Unfortunately Dropbox can’t magically combine your changes together. Instead, it creates two conflicted versions, so at least you don’t lose your work. You’ll have to integrate your changes back into a single file manually. If you’re working on an article in LaTeX, you can break your article up into separate files, one for each section, using the \input command. That way you and your coauthor can work on different sections at the same time without generating a version conflict.
On the Mac, Dropbox works especially well with Growl. If you have Growl installed, Dropbox will use it to notify you when your collaborator makes any changes. Growl notifications are particularly nice because they pop up unobtrusively to tell you what you need to know, but don’t require any interaction and don’t get in the way of what you’re doing.
Get an extra 250 MB for free
Dropbox is running a promotion on referrals right now. If you sign up for Dropbox using the link below, both you and I will get an extra 250MB added to our accounts. (I also used this link in the article, above.)https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTU3NTkzOTk
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