EtherPad

From http://etherpad.com/ :

"EtherPad is a web-based word processor that allows people to work together in really real-time. When multiple people edit the same document simultaneously, any changes are instantly reflected on everyone's screen. The result is a new and productive way to collaborate on text documents, useful for meeting notes, drafting sessions, education, team programming, and more."

• http://etherpad.com/ - home
• http://etherpad.com/sdp19efpL7 - sample session for testing

-- Contributors: PeterThoeny - 2009-06-30

Discussion

At TWIKI.NET we tried this out at an engineering meeting. It is pretty useful to write meeting minutes collaboratively while at the meeting. We used TWiki markup so that it is easy to copy & paste into the meeting topic.

It would be cool to have a EtherPadPlugin that shows an extra "Simultaneous Edit" button that locks the page and fires up an EditPad session, and replaces the edit link for other participants to point to the EditPad session of that TWiki page. In EditPad there would need to be some way to end the session, e.g. push content back into the TWiki page and unlock the page.

There is a security concern: An Etherpad session is semi-public, anyone who knows the URL can participate. That is, it is security by obscurity. For corporate use, a behind firewall installation of Etherpad might be needed.

Anyone interested in implementing this?

-- PeterThoeny - 2009-06-30