DriveGroups: Facilitating Access Control in Google Drive
We currently exploring the use of data-sharing technology in multidisciplinary life science research and how to better support this facet of research. One of our recent studies has revealed that the data-sharing needs of life scientists are not adequately supported by existing technology. A current collaboration with Dr. Jaime Ruiz, Dr. Christina Boucher, and Dr. Aleksandra Sarcevic has begun exploring the challenges and barriers to data sharing within life science collaborations. The initial results have allowed us to begin to identify fundamental issues including that researchers struggle to balance data access control and collaboration. Current technology, such as Google Drive, tends to lack discoverable fine-grained control. While frameworks for usable access control methods have been developed, they lack widespread implementation. Although Google Drive provides allows users to control who has access to their data, I found that researchers frequently find using existing settings to be painful and inefficient. This is particularly difficult when controlling access for multiple files and folders, due to inappropriate default settings. Furthermore, researchers are often unaware of the access control features that are supported by the technology they use every day.
As part of an NSF CRII Grant, my goal is to develop, implement, and evaluate a system called DriveGroupsthat provides fine-grained control for Google Drive allow users to set workspace or project-wide defaults in a transparent, accessible, and discoverable way. DriveGroups will accomplish this by providing an optional UI that clearly indicates individual and group file access levels, allows users to easily set file access settings and is easily reached through a convenient sidebar, as opposed to being buried deep in settings.
