Collaborative software

Collaborative software, also known as groupware, is software that integrates work on a single project by several concurrent users at separated workstations. It was pioneered by Lotus Software with the popular Lotus Notes application. Collaborative software becomes more valuable when more people use it and thus Metcalfe's law applies. For example, calendaring becomes more useful when more people keep their calendars up-to-date.

Examples of collaborative software :

• web based solutions
  • based on Wiki
    • usemod
  • scoop
  • slashcode (http://slashcode.com/) software that runs slashdot (http://slashdot.org)
  • everything engine (http://everydevel.com/) backing the everything (http://www.everything2.com) site
  • bricolage (http://bricolage.cc/) used by salon.com (http://www.salon.com/)
• distributed or desktop solutions
• CVS
• RCS
• Subversion
• Nuxeo Collaborative Portal Server (http://www.cps-project.org/): content management and collaborative platform based on Zope

See also : collaborative tools, a Perl Monks discussion (http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=235946)