Any content generated locally for your self-help guide (SHG), i.e. content that is not external to the University of Minnesota, needs to be housed in one central location for easy access to revise and update as needed. Drafting documents in Google Drive is a great way to begin the process of collaborating. Once the content is drafted, decide a central location from which to store the content.
Drupal offers several benefits for storing content, and since the SHG will be made in Drupal, this storage option is particularly useful. However, there are other options for content storage that may be a better fit for your content.
Options for Storing Your SHG Content
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Google Drive |
ServiceNow Knowledge Base |
Drupal |
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Edit-ability |
Those that have rights to the doc, can use the suggesting feature to mark up the doc, can edit directly, or can make comments linked to some aspect of the doc (e.g. a word, paragraph, or image).
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Requires access rights to ServiceNow. Only one person at a time can edit an article. Requires extra care to produce clean html. |
Requires access rights to Drupal. Only one person at a time can edit an article. |
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Collaboration |
Easy to share and collaborate with multiple users. You can grant edit, comment, or view rights to get feedback internal to the doc. |
Can provide an article link to collaborators but feedback would have to be collected on a person-to-person basis. Has a built-in feedback function. |
Can leave notes on content only seen by other collaborators. |
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Version control/ (built in expiration date for reminders to review content and update) |
Can see revision history. No built in reminders. |
Can set expiration dates to prompt content review. No built-in version control. You can create a pdf of each iteration for posterity. |
Version control and tracking is available. Drupal is highly customizable. You may be able to add additional features like expiration dates, automatic reminders, etc. |
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Ease of use (technical know-how) |
Most University staff already use this. |
Requires some training. |
Requires training. |
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Other considerations |
Works well for drafting content. |
For best results, this requires a feed of your content or some other type of integration from ServiceNow into your Drupal site. Talk to your Drupal Administrator. |
Since the self-help guide lives in Drupal it may make sense to also store the content in Drupal. |
Here are some questions to help you determine which system may be best suited for your material:
- What feature(s) are the most important to you?
- Are there any technological constraints? (i.e. does anyone on your team know how to navigate the ServiceNow Knowledge Base?)
- How often do you anticipate needing to update the content?
- Is version control important to you?
For further explanations of these options and help in deciding what is best for your SHG, consider scheduling a consultation with a Technology Trainer, [email protected].