Online web collaboration 101

May 8, 2008 5:10 PM

What is the easiest way to collaborate realtime on a web document online with someone who isn't technical, ideally with some sort of free web app rather than special software? Is there a way to do this without requiring both people to sign up for an account, etc?
posted by markkraft to computers & internet (10 comments total)

To clarify, this is for the purpose of making an html-formatted blog post.
posted by markkraft at 5:20 PM on May 8

Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com) is one example of a wiki-style interface that only one person would need to sign up for. You could sign up and create the wiki; you could then make it where anyone (or just people you invited can change the information on the page). It's a nice WYSIWYG interface and has almost no learning curve.

The only bad part might be that anyone could see or edit the post. Granted, the chances of people finding it are small but it's the price you pay for foregoing authentication.
posted by justnathan at 5:29 PM on May 8

Off the top of my head, a crude simple way (though a time-waster in the long run) would be for everyone to use the same blog log-in, but anyone making a contribution to changes the blog's password before they start editing, thus locking everyone else out of making any changes until the contributor has finished their edit. The password is always changed to be "the fifth word of my new entry on the blog", so anyone sitting on an old edit can't get the password until they refresh their browser to the latest update.
posted by -harlequin- at 5:36 PM on May 8

I don't think either of justnathan or harlequin's examples actually are real-time collaboration, with multiple editors editing the same content at the same time.

For that, I think your best bet will be Google Docs.... but yes, they'll need (free) Google logins. The word-processor document is HTML (obviously) and can be cut-pasted as such.
posted by rokusan at 5:43 PM on May 8

Seconding Google Docs.
posted by GuyZero at 6:03 PM on May 8

Try writeboard.com (from 37signals). At least one of you has to sign up for an account.
posted by fishfucker at 6:13 PM on May 8

I should note that writeboard isn't true simultaneous collaboration, but maybe it's close enough for you?
posted by fishfucker at 6:14 PM on May 8

Elluminate apparently offers a free room for real-time small group collaboration.
posted by PatoPata at 6:22 PM on May 8

without requiring both people to sign up for an account

If you don't want anyone else other than the two of you to edit it, it will need to be password-protected somehow.
posted by winston at 6:58 PM on May 8

Try Synchroedit. It's free software; you can use the hosted version or set up your own server. Mobwrite is another free software web-based solution.
posted by PueExMachina at 8:24 PM on May 8