Web 2.0 catalogue database collaberative tool?

August 4, 2006 3:57 PM

A Web 2.0 way to collaberate with one other person on creating a bibliography/catalogue of references.... I normally use a spreadsheet for this, but the person who is helping me won't always have access to her computer or be able to load MS Excel from a remote computer. We are working to enter about 500 items in a bibliography; the info need to be sortable, both alphabetically and for some numeric values. There will probably be up to ten fields per item. I know there are some collaberative spreadsheets, like Google Spreadsheet, and that is a pretty good option for the basics. However, I would like to turn this into more than a list, and adding these features would be great: the ability to also store URLS that we've used as sources, as well as add new ones as we work. the ability to tag (and search by tags) the items we enter. even the ability to store images and sound files as entries... Does anyone know of any online tools that can do this? Or have any other suggestions?
posted by soulbarn to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

You want a database, specifically a Content Management System. There are a variety of open source CMSes.
posted by orthogonality at 4:23 PM on August 4, 2006

Or, you might look into Google Spreadsheets...

If you *do* need a CMS, though, check out WebGUI, and ValueCMS if you need someone to host it.
posted by baylink at 4:35 PM on August 4, 2006

Try Connotea and CiteULike. I don't know if they can do any fancy sorting, but they can do pretty much anything else.
posted by lunchbox at 4:41 PM on August 4, 2006

On review; damn, I'm blind. Nevermind about GS.
posted by baylink at 5:46 PM on August 4, 2006

Second the recommendation for Connotea. It will automatically get the citation info for most online journals, allows tagging and sharing, and has a wiki page to go with your account.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:15 PM on August 4, 2006

Dabble DB is a pretty cool web app that claims to combine "the best of group spreadsheets, custom databases, and intranet web applications into a new way to manage and share your information on the web." I just signed up for their free 30-day demo and its very customizable.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:07 PM on August 4, 2006

I would seriously consider giving CiteULike a hard look instead of Connotea.

I just did a quick google and found this blog post.

Basically, Connotea is similar to del.icio.us. It only allows you to make bookmarks. CiteULike, on the other hand, imports actual bibliographic info. From there, you can export to BibTeX or EndNote. There is even an experimental feature to import from BibTeX. Much more useful, IMHO.
posted by zzztimbo at 2:37 PM on August 5, 2006 [1 favorite]

JotSpot might work.
posted by rsanheim at 5:20 PM on August 5, 2006