Software Review
CommonSpace, from Sixth Floor Media

Catherine Yoes

CommonSpace by Sixth Floor Media. Available in Macintosh and Windows versions. US$75.00.

Way back in the "old" days, the essay for English class was a document that passed from student to teacher and back again, and no one else got to see it (with the possible exception of parents). But writing instruction has changed a lot since I was a K-12 student. In my four years as a composition instructor I have tried to increase the amount of feedback on essays by having students edit each other's work before turning it in to me. Peer editing is widespread in reading and composition classes at Berkeley, a reflection of the current popularity of this technique in many colleges and schools. If I went back to my high school now, I would probably find students grouped in small clusters handing essays around for comment in the same rooms where I sat in a chair in a neat row and worked by myself.

In the "traditional" classroom -- and by this I mean a classroom without computers -- all it takes to peer edit is a sheet of paper on which students can write their comments. Or if photocopying is available and not too expensive, students can provide multiple copies of their drafts for readers to mark up. Commenting on electronic documents, however, is more difficult. While e-mail software, from Pine in the Unix environment to the latest fancy client programs for Macintosh and PC, allows a user to append her text to an original message when she replies, comments only go in the space above or below. As a reader and a writer of feedback, I prefer comments in the left or right margin, but this isn't really feasible in an e-mail message. Also, unless you and your correspondent are both using the same version of one of the newer e-mail clients, such as Eudora Pro, formatting can be a major inconvenience. Bolding, underlining, and italics get lost. (Who hasn't received a file with all of the "smart" quote marks turned into Rs and Ss, or other such character substitutions?)

CommonSpace, from Sixth Floor Media, is a software package for collaborative writing that begins to address these problems. It consists of a simple word processor (think SimpleText) that lets you annotate text by adding vertical columns, and a real-time chat module. CommonSpace is available in both Macintosh and Windows versions, and it is able to translate files from all major word processors into its own editor. CommonSpace lets instructors create "personal libraries" for frequently used comments, and a question set tool can be used to create reading and writing prompts.

I was able to send CommonSpace documents back and forth via e-mail, adding more columns of annotation each time, without any difficulties. The transfers worked as well across the Mac/PC platforms as within them. I added ten columns of notes and was still able to open and edit the annotated document without crashing my machine. The chat module was clunky, however; I did manage to crash several times while trying to set up a conversation between two fictional users in my office. While struggling to get two Macs 3 feet apart in dialogue with each other, I couldn't help thinking how much more difficult it would be to set up such a conversation between me in my office and a student at home, or between me at home and a student in a campus computer facility.

The main drawback: it's pricey. The cost per unit is $55 (5-100 units) until May 1, 1997; after that the price will be $75 per unit. So a ten-pack for a small computer lab costs $550 until May 1, 1997, or $750 after May 1. I have been told that there is a version for students to buy for their home machines that costs around $29.95, so that they won't be forced to use it only at school. I cannot find this information on the Sixth Floor Media Web site, however, and to me $29.95 still seems prohibitively expensive. $29.95 is the equivalent of three or four used paperbacks. I have a hard enough time justifying the cost of multiple texts and a course reader; I don't know if I can justify requiring my students to buy CommonSpace as well, given that we may only peer edit four times in the semester.

Now, if I were assured that my students would be using CommonSpace in several classes, or if it were a tool that they would be expected to use in business after graduation, I wouldn't hesitate to ask them to buy it. But mainstream word processors such as Microsoft Word and Word Perfect do allow a limited amount of annotation already, and are likely to improve such features as more users find they need to collaborate electronically. CommonSpace, on the other hand, is not meant to become a replacement for a full-featured word processor. Sixth Floor Media advertises it as "offer[ing] writers, readers, and editors a way to share ideas together in a powerful collaborative environment," while still using their favorite word processors. Why not just use the word processor, even if the annotations aren't as elegant? After all, it's what they'll have to know how to use in the "real world."

I enjoyed using CommonSpace, except for the problems I had with the conferencing feature. I think it has an attractive interface; as noted above the ability to make columnar annotations especially appeals to me. I liked it a lot better than its main competitor, the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment, primarily because Daedalus is LAN-only whereas CommonSpace documents can be zipped around the Internet via e-mail. But I still balk at the idea of forcing students to buy an extra layer of word processing technology. And if you want real-time conferencing capabilities, a host of cheap or free solutions already exist for that (IRC, MOOs, unix chat and talk).

Of course, I realize that one solution to my gripe would be for everyone to buy CommonSpace and use it as their primary word processor instead of Word or Word Perfect, a solution that certainly won't come to pass if you read my review and follow my advice not to buy CommonSpace.

Catherine Yoes (e-mail: cyoes@uclink.berkeley.edu) is a graduate student in English at the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA.