Collaborative authoring
Collaborative Authoring tools allow teams to author documents together. They range from wikis, which are web-focused, to tools like Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live, which focus on desktop publishing.
Wikipedia maintains an article on collaborative authoring and tools.
Intersect has prepared a paper on workflows and the various pitfalls of collaborative authoring (PDF 491 KB).
| What is it and how do I get it? | When should I use it? | What caveats or obstacles are there? | *Support? |
|---|---|---|---|
Intersect hosts Confluence. You can contact Intersect through the Universities eResearch Computing group (ARCS) to get your own wiki space on our servers. | Confluence is a user-friendly and flexible wiki with a lot of available plugins. It's a good choice for most applications and is offered by Intersect as a hosted service. | Unlike some wikis Confluence is not free to use, so if you want to host it on your own server or need to make heavy use of it there is a cost involved. | External (Intersect) |
A free web-based alternative to MS Office provided by Google. | Google Docs allows the user to share their files with other users and read and edit the files simultaneously. It also allows you to: | Google docs requires users to sign up for a Google Gmail account. Editing your document in Google Docs can only be done when you are connected to the internet. For off-line use the files need to be downloaded to your computer and edited in Microsoft Word for example if it is a 'word.doc' There may be some compatibility issues with MS Office documents if your MS Office Software is not up to date. Consideration should be made to periodic copying of the documents for back up & recovery purposes. Confidential documents or private information such as non-de identified data should not be placed on Google Docs. | End User |
A free web-based version of Microsoft Office. | Office Live allows users to share their files with others and read and edit the files. It has a revision history and allows the user to roll back to previous versions. | Office Live requires users to register for a Live account. Files can be managed & edited within MS Office Live only if the user is online, for off-line use the files need to be downloaded before the user goes off-line. Than the files can be edited on a local editor Consideration should be made to periodic copying of the documents for back up & recovery purposes Confidential documents or private information such as non-de identified data should not be placed on Office Live. | End User |
| * Support | Source of Support for Service |
|---|---|
| UoN Supplied | Deployed, managed and supported by the University and provided to Researchers at no additional cost. |
| UoN Supported | Deployed, managed and supported by the University with some additional costs to the Researcher, Centre or Faculty. |
| End User | The item is end user supported.The University is not in a position to provide technical support or assurances that the product will work within the University environment. |
| External(Organisation) | Deployed, managed and supported by an organisation external to the University. Additional costs may apply. |