Best Practices for Sharing Files (Proposed)

Best Uses (file sharing)

Organized by tool

Personal Box: working documents and sensitive documents

• Working documents that are being edited by teams

• Sensitive data – like course evals, personnel action dossiers

• Folders owned by individual, not SON; not for long-term storage

• (research) Patient data falling under HIPAA

Department Box: archival

• Documents that will not be edited; ballots, approved minutes

• Final meeting agendas and materials

• Owned by SON, not individual

Outlook meeting: agendas and meeting materials

• Working documents for people to see just for that event, like agenda and meeting materials

• Can be updated by meeting organizer

Email: point-in-time information

• Files that do not need to be archived or referred back to

Google Drive (http://g.ucla.edu ): research

• Limited space as of 2024

• Not for SON business

• Research collaborations that do not need HIPAA security

• Includes Google Docs - Documents can be edited by several people in real-time

• Can also be useful for non-shared (personal) files

One Drive: similar to Google Drive

• For collaboration Google Drive is simpler

• May be better suited to non-shared (personal) files

Confluence: not used for file sharing. Best for how-to guides, storing discussions and rationales, faculty handbook.

• Best to refer to files via links to Box

• Maybe include single example documents

Best Practices (file sharing)

Organized by purpose

Archive (unchanging): Department Box

• Can have public and group-specific access

• Group membership controlled by IT

Meeting agendas and materials: Outlook meeting

• Attach files to Outlook meeting

  • Note: update agenda in meeting, instead of emailing revisions

Working documents: Box

• Shared by individual

Sensitive documents: Personal Box

• Archival documents can also be on Department Box

One-off documents: Email

• Not intended for long-term storing

Real-time team editing: Google Drive (Docs or Sheets)