Are all our changes logged, safe, saved, secure and downloadable? Has Google Docs committed to it all being seeable, shareable, protected and preserved?
Remembering what was said is important. I write about Language Evolution et al, so I need a memory, a change log, to show a path.
Important work and business needs reliable, transparent records, so is Google Docs able to recall and share what happens in a living documents' life?
Version history by Google Docs is advocated to give us all integrity, in creative processes, but I am cautious and curious if our full, true timelines will survive long-term.
Best Answer
No guaranteed, faithful audit trail is given by Google Docs. Logs are lost by Google because of (1) deleterious forced upgrades (2) forced space optimization (3) no downloadable backups preventing loss.
Revisions Deleted by Upgrade: Google Docs' last official upgrade did not save, nor migrate, old Revision History to their new version, resulting in total data loss and no alternative. http://productforums.google.com/d/topic/docs/Tsd-E-bzsh8
Automatic Revision Pruning: Docs deletes versions to save space, but you cannot control it, nor mark versions to save forever. http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95902
No Downloadable-Publishable Revision History: Contrasting Google Docs' promise to share our work, only you and people who can edit your document are able to view Revision History, making real public transparency/accountability/downloadability difficult if not impossible.
Google is known for their likeable Data Liberation Policy. but it severely misinforms people who do not know Revision History is not faithfully backed up.
I welcome Google to commit to never losing anything you share and write, and optionally allow others equal transparency to see everything we save (or tried...) and share.
So if Google Docs' deleterious behavior continues, people will continue to be disappointed if their archived data is unpredictably, untrackably, so very loseable.