Comments on: software for massive document collaboration? http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/ Ramblings on software, law, and the spaces in between. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:08:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Martin Sevior http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29995 Martin Sevior Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:12:00 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29995 Hi Luis, We'd be really happy to read your thoughts on the suitability of http://abicollab.net for your needs as your project is pretty much at the center of our aims. There are a few extra features that we plan to roll out to make the site more useful notably, "copy", invite and various premium services. Unfortunately we do not have an OSX binary that can talk to abicollab.net. We were 98% of the way with a native OSX client when our developer had to leave us. It appears hard to attract free software developers to with OSX expertise. Maybe we should just bite the bullet and package up our GTK client to run under X11 on OSX. Hi Luis,
We’d be really happy to read your thoughts on the suitability of http://abicollab.net for your needs as your project is pretty much at the center of our aims.

There are a few extra features that we plan to roll out to make the site more useful notably, “copy”, invite and various premium services.

Unfortunately we do not have an OSX binary that can talk to abicollab.net. We were 98% of the way with a native OSX client when our developer had to leave us. It appears hard to attract free software developers to with OSX expertise.

Maybe we should just bite the bullet and package up our GTK client to run under X11 on OSX.

]]> By: DJ Saltarelli http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29981 DJ Saltarelli Sat, 02 Jan 2010 04:58:41 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29981 Have you thought about commercial tools like WorkShare? It's for lawyers, is Word centric, but rather than using the god-awful track changes feature, it does real red-lining deltas of documents and has an excellent UI for merging peoples changes to documents. Not the ideal, definitely, but it's really an indispensable tool for an attorney these days. Have you thought about commercial tools like WorkShare? It’s for lawyers, is Word centric, but rather than using the god-awful track changes feature, it does real red-lining deltas of documents and has an excellent UI for merging peoples changes to documents. Not the ideal, definitely, but it’s really an indispensable tool for an attorney these days.

]]> By: Camille Bégnis http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29979 Camille Bégnis Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:42:52 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29979 Hello, my Company (http://www.neodoc.biz) is editing Calenco (http://www.calenco.com) which is an XML CCMS (Components Content Management System) which base is Free Software (AGPL). Concerning your requirements: * ease of use: it is a Web Based interface, aimed at technical writers, and managers, not geeks. * large-scale collaboration: that's the goal of Calenco * maintaining the canonical version: yes it's stored on a server. * commenting: this is planned for soon * editing: this is done through a Web Based WYSIWYM(ean) XML editor of our own * diffs/versioning: All content is versionned, and we connected Calenco to a commercial XML Diff tool that allows us to generate nice HTML reports with redlining. We have no public demonstration available yet, but I'll be glad to show the tool to you. Just drop us a note at contact@calenco.com Best wishes for 2010! Hello, my Company (http://www.neodoc.biz) is editing Calenco (http://www.calenco.com) which is an XML CCMS (Components Content Management System) which base is Free Software (AGPL). Concerning your requirements:
* ease of use: it is a Web Based interface, aimed at technical writers, and managers, not geeks.
* large-scale collaboration: that’s the goal of Calenco
* maintaining the canonical version: yes it’s stored on a server.
* commenting: this is planned for soon
* editing: this is done through a Web Based WYSIWYM(ean) XML editor of our own
* diffs/versioning: All content is versionned, and we connected Calenco to a commercial XML Diff tool that allows us to generate nice HTML reports with redlining.

We have no public demonstration available yet, but I’ll be glad to show the tool to you. Just drop us a note at contact@calenco.com

Best wishes for 2010!

]]> By: Luis Villa http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29976 Luis Villa Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:04:59 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29976 I will look at ReST- having a nice toolset to get out of the markup and into better formatted text is ideal. Thanks, Icon. I will look at ReST- having a nice toolset to get out of the markup and into better formatted text is ideal. Thanks, Icon.

]]> By: Konstantin Ryabitsev http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29973 Konstantin Ryabitsev Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:50:33 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29973 I do all my docs with ReST (plain text with minimal formatting) and then do rst2pdf or rst2odt or rst2html (or even rst2s5 for presentations) if I have to send them to others. I do all my docs with ReST (plain text with minimal formatting) and then do rst2pdf or rst2odt or rst2html (or even rst2s5 for presentations) if I have to send them to others.

]]> By: Advogato - Recent Blog Entries http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29972 Advogato - Recent Blog Entries Wed, 30 Dec 2009 21:54:06 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29972 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] So does anyone have suggestions on other tools, or specific suggestions on how to make this toolchain more robust and/or powerful? Sorry, no details quite yet on what the project is, and no prizes for guessing…Syndicated 2009-12-29 15:06:25 from Luis Villa's Internet Home » Blog Posts [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> Kramer auto Pingback[...] So does anyone have suggestions on other tools, or specific suggestions on how to make this toolchain more robust and/or powerful? Sorry, no details quite yet on what the project is, and no prizes for guessing…Syndicated 2009-12-29 15:06:25 from Luis Villa's Internet Home » Blog Posts [...]

]]> By: Luis Villa http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29964 Luis Villa Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:41:15 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29964 Unfortunately, I do need at least some intermediate fancy formatting; I want to be able to generate legible redlines (aka 'lawyers diffs') fairly regularly. I believe wdiff can probably be coaxed into this, though. (For anyone who has read this far, I'm leaning towards markdown as the markup, but other suggestions are welcome.) Unfortunately, I do need at least some intermediate fancy formatting; I want to be able to generate legible redlines (aka ‘lawyers diffs’) fairly regularly. I believe wdiff can probably be coaxed into this, though.

(For anyone who has read this far, I’m leaning towards markdown as the markup, but other suggestions are welcome.)

]]> By: Gerv http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29963 Gerv Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:27:34 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29963 I think you are on the right track. Use co-ment.net to gather feedback on milestone versions, and source control on plain (or gently wiki-marked-up) text for the internal development process. You don't need fancy formatting until the last minute; or, if you do, you can have a one-way export process to PDF. Gerv I think you are on the right track. Use co-ment.net to gather feedback on milestone versions, and source control on plain (or gently wiki-marked-up) text for the internal development process. You don’t need fancy formatting until the last minute; or, if you do, you can have a one-way export process to PDF.

Gerv

]]> By: Luis Villa http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29962 Luis Villa Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:34:14 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29962 Benjamin: 'stet' (mentioned above) is that GPLv3 software, now maintained as co-ment.net. bochecha, fraggle, test: very interesting, I will look into them. Matthew: same problem- not self-hosted; can't do public comment without editing. Ian: oh, interesting. I will definitely talk to them. (They should see this, it is on their planet after all ;) Benjamin: ‘stet’ (mentioned above) is that GPLv3 software, now maintained as co-ment.net.

bochecha, fraggle, test: very interesting, I will look into them.

Matthew: same problem- not self-hosted; can’t do public comment without editing.

Ian: oh, interesting. I will definitely talk to them. (They should see this, it is on their planet after all ;)

]]> By: Ian McKellar http://tieguy.org/blog/2009/12/29/software-for-massive-document-collaboration/comment-page-1/#comment-29960 Ian McKellar Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:20:13 +0000 http://tieguy.org/?p=1759#comment-29960 I think MDC uses DekiWiki which is a MediaWiki hacked up beyond recognition to support all kinds of interesting use cases. Songbird for example uses it for internal documentation, public (static, but with comments) documentation and more general public wiki space. The developers also seem keen to support interesting use-cases. You could talk to the MDC folks and see if they can set something like that up for you. I think MDC uses DekiWiki which is a MediaWiki hacked up beyond recognition to support all kinds of interesting use cases. Songbird for example uses it for internal documentation, public (static, but with comments) documentation and more general public wiki space. The developers also seem keen to support interesting use-cases. You could talk to the MDC folks and see if they can set something like that up for you.

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