Fusion Tables : new ways to collaborate on structured data

Abstract

Fusion Tables allows data collaborators to create, merge, navigate and set access control permissions on structured data. This thesis focuses on the collaboration tools that were added to Googles Fusion Tables. The collaboration tools provided additional functionality: first, the ability to view, sort and filter all the threaded discussions on the different granularities of the data set; second, the ability to take Snaps, dynamic state bookmarking that allows collaborators to save queries and visualizations and share them with other users. In addition, this thesis initiates a discussion about data collaboration on different platforms outside the Data Management System (DMS), and the implementation of the Fusion Table - Google Wave gadget that provides this functionality. To evaluate these added features, we conducted a user survey based on three sources: Google Analytics, field study of experienced Fusion Tables users, and a user study to evaluate the UI and the collaboration tools. The results showed that approximately 40% of the visitors to the site use the collaboration features . Based on the user study, it appears that UI improvements can increase exposure to these features, and some additional functionality can be added to improve the collaboration features and provide a better collaboration system.