Using Groups to organize sharing in Google Drive and working with suborganizations

[Frank Hardart]

We are trying to facilitate the management of lots of sub-organizations and document sharing in Google Drive.  I've found the following:

- We need to create sub-organizations so that administrators of the sub-organization can have have control over adding and removing users.  However, once we do all of the work of creating the sub-organization structure, there doesn't seem to be any way of using these groupings for shared folders in Google Drive.

- It is possible, it seems, to share a Google Drive folder with a Google Group. I assume as user updates are made to the Google Group, the Google Drive sharing in this case is also updated?  If this does work, this would necessitate replicating the sub-organization structure in Google Groups.  As we make modifications in our staffing and students, we would have to update both the Google Groups and the sub-organzations.  This seems like a big pain.

- It seems there is a Command in GAM that can be used to sync the members in the sub-organizations with corresponding Google Groups thereby eliminating the need to do double entry every time there are staffing or student changes and consequently, share folders would stay updated with the latest updates to the sub-organizations.

Before I go down this path, are there others who are doing the above?  Is it working?  Are there other better solutions for this? Do you have any insights as we get going?  I want to make sure I know what we're facing before I go down the path.

Thanks!

Frank

 

[Henry Thiele]

Yes - as groups change the rights and permissions sync to the documents, folders, and now calendars.

We use these for sharing and are a very effective tool.

Hank

Henry C. Thiele Ed.D.
http://about.me/henrythiele

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[Frank Hardart]

Hank,

Thanks!  And do you sync Sub-organizations with Groups?

Frank

[Frank Hardart]

If we, as a school, are not using Active Directory, is there a particularly good simple way of synching sub-organizations with groups?  Do you need to be using Active Directory to use GADS?  Is there another easy way?

[Doug Blatti]

I would bet someone here will tell you how to script this with GAM, but you can do it manually (on a per-OU basis) in the new dashboard.

 

From Users, filter to the sub-OU, then click the checkbox to select all.  There is an “add users to group” button (as seen below).

 

 

Doug Blatti

Technology Program Manager

Community High School District 155

@dblatti, http://blatti.net

[Bjorn Behrendt]

Groups do not work like you would expect them to. 

~ If you share a resource with a group, every member of that group will have rights to that resource.  But they will not automatically get the resource.   Before they can see that they have the resource they must open it up at least once.   So they will need to either click a link to the resource that was sent via email, or they will have to search for it as it will not be in their drive or in their shared with me until it is opened. 

~ New people added to the group will also have to open the resource once before it shows up in their drive anywhere.

~ This is by design so that end-users do not get SPAMed, so don't expect it to change.

To solve this I have seen a couple methods.

1. Build a master Google site with links to all the resource they are supposed to have. (documents, calendars, folders, sites).

2. Share each resource individually, which will generate an email and at least have the resource show up in their "Shared with me" folder.

Tips:

~ Calendars, and sites I have no good trick, but for Documents I would advise creating a shared folder and put everything into that instead of individually sharing documents.   This means that the recipients only need to move 1 folder from their "Shared with me" and will now have future access to any documents that are placed in that folder.

~ For the classrooms take a look at http://www.gclassfolders.com/ which can be run either by an individual teacher or as a school wide initiative.

Bjorn Behrendt M.Ed ~ Never Stop Learning

   b...@askbj.net | (802) 772-0003

   Google Apps For Education Certified Trainer

My Sites

 ~ Edlisten.com ~ Educational Podcast

 ~ AskBj.net ~ Online Training and Ed Tech Resources

 ~ VTed.org ~ Vermont's Personal Learning Network

gClassFolders ~ Create Google folders for your class.

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[Ryan Collins]

We use the "Share a folder with the group and put everything inside" tip. But I also put a link to the resource in the footer of the group messages. That way, they get the link whenever they receive an email from the group.

For our BOE meetings, each meetings materials go in a folder. The secretary then "Emails collaborators" which will give the BOE members a link to the documents. This could be used with others.

[Maki, Tim]

I am coming into the discussion late but wanted to share my experience in using Google Drive as a replacement for our "shared" storage that has historically been on a fileserver.  What I did was create a Google Apps account specifically for our shared storage.  Then under that account I created the following folder structure (much deeper than the screenshot):

For the security on this folder structure I use the Google Groups memberships.  Everyone in our Google Apps domain (which a mirror of our AD structure - OU=suborganization) has access to the "TS Cloud Drive" folder so it is findable (through a search) and they can add that folder to their individual "My Drive" listing.  Under this model when someone wants to share a file with more than one person they upload it to the appropriate folder and it is by default shared with the group that has access to that folder.  Then they send a msg to the group to let them know it was uploaded.

This setup means that 1) users do not have to click on the link to the file in order to have access to it later, 2) all files are stored in a more orderly way than lumped under "Shared With Me", 3) new members of a group automatically gain access to the files, 4) "Shared With Me" does become useless simply due to the large number of files each user now has access to and 5) when a user leaves the school we do not have to worry as much about important files being under their account.

One catch is that if you allow users to use the local Google Drive application on their computer it will by default sync all of the files they have access to including all of the files under the "TS Cloud Drive" (in our case).  This can cause an issue in two ways: 1) potentially allowing "unsecure" access to files and 2) if a user thinks to themselves "What the heck are all of these files on my computer?" and deletes them, they will also be deleted from the shared file storage at the next sync.  My recommended solution to this is to make sure you use a backup solution and to not allow just any user to install the Google Drive application.

That is a very quick and rough explanation but feel free to reach out if you would like further details or have questions.

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Tim Maki, Director of Technology, Tilton School

30 School St., Tilton, NH 03276

P: 603-286-1779 F: 603-286-1772

NHSTE - Independent School Liaison - nhste.org

NHCMTC Steering Committee - nhcmtc.org

Twitter: @TimMaki and @TiltonTech

Google+: google.com/+TimMaki

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow,

inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination." - Albert Einstein

On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Frank Hardart <fhar...@educatellc.com> wrote:

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[Frank Hardart]

Thanks all for the feedback!