Collaborative Editing
From Social Patterns
Contents |
Example
Asynchronous editing enables multiple people to work on the same document.
What
People like to be able to work together on documents, encyclopedias, and software codebases.
When
Use this pattern when you wish to enable your site members to work together to curate their collective wisdom or document their share culture.
How
Provide a repository for hosting documents with version control. Give users a way to bring in additional collaborators with invite to participate.
The "invite to participate" pattern is used to enable people to invite collaborators to work together on a document.
Provide an Edit This Page directly on the document to be edited or enable uploading of incrementally updated versions of a stored document.
For direct editing, provide an edit box, much as in a blog or comment interface.
It doesn't get more meta than this: Here I am editing this very pattern in the collaborative wiki where it lives outside of the book.
Optionally, give contributors mechanisms for tracking changes, through notifications or with RSS feeds.
Why
Collaborative editing is more "webby" than the alternative (emailing documents to multiple participants and then orchestrating proliferating multiple asynchronous updated copies of a document, with aspirational filenames ending in "finalFinalfinal."
Collaborative editing does away with multiple copies of files, irreconciled changes, and email overload.
Related Patterns
As Seen On
- SocialText
- Mediawiki
- Wikipedia
- SubEthaEdit
- Writeboard
- Google Docs
- Twiki
- Drupal
- Peanut Butter Wiki
- numerous FAQ documents that accompanied active Usenet newsgroups
Sources / Similar Patterns in Other Libraries
- Collaboration
- Manage Project
- Voting
- Collaborative Editing
- Crowdsourcing
- Rights
