This is topic Calling writers and knowledgement management addicts: collaborative writing tools in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.
So I'm about to start a collaborative writing project. It's going to be a very slow, casual thing. It will involved a lot of world development, character dossiers, scene outlining (yes, it's speculative fiction), and I'd like to find an appealing easy way to manage it. The volume of data won't be huge.
We're thinking of using Kayuda (hat tip to Schlock Mercenary's Howard Tayler [a former member of this forum] for turning me on to it): http://www.kayuda.com/
But there's one hitch -- you can't keep a Kayuda workspace private *and* share it with someone else. Although that's a feature that may be worked on at some point.
Does anyone have suggestions of something else we could use?
The criteria:
Free, online, shareable tool Some sort of visual outlining/mapping feature The ability to easily edit and arrange the outline The ability to associate large chunks of text with each point of the outline/map
We may just end up sharing a Kayuda log in until the sharing feature is developed, but if there's something else out there that is better, I'd love to hear about.
Heck, I'd love to hear about any knowledge management/brainstorming/project management tools that you like to use -- esp. if you can give me specific examples.
Aside: I find that I'm using Google documents less than I thought I would.
Posted by Mr.Intel (Member # 10057) on :
Er... how about wiki? i just set up a server and locked it down in about an hour. Granted, I'd never installed PHP or MySQL on a windows box before, so it should have gone faster, but it worked!
It seems to have all the things you're looking for and meets the 'free' qualification. You just need a place to install it and a tiny bit of technical knowledge.
If the full blown wiki is too much (or you don't have a fully configurable host to put it on), you might try a smaller wiki.
That's a good idea, Mr.Intel. I have a server host that supports PHP, MySQL, etc.
The only issue is that it doesn't quite have the lovely interface and ease of mapping that Kayuda does. I'll think about it, though.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
MediaWiki software is free and open source. It's great for collaborative projects of all types. I haven't installed it yet but I hear it's easy to install. People are familiar with how to edit since it's the same software used by Wikipedia, and it's simple to learn for those who aren't. There are zillions of tutorials and stuff available too. Sounds like a good option.
Posted by Euripides (Member # 9315) on :
You could use a couple of free writeboards.
Posted by David K Storrs (Member # 10356) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zalmoxis: So I'm about to start a collaborative writing project. [...]
We're thinking of using Kayuda (hat tip to Schlock Mercenary's Howard Tayler [a former member of this forum] for turning me on to it): http://www.kayuda.com/
But there's one hitch -- you can't keep a Kayuda workspace private *and* share it with someone else. Although that's a feature that may be worked on at some point.
Hi Zalmoxis,
I'm Dave Storrs, the Chief Evil Overlord of Wotan, the company that makes Kayuda. One of the hats that I wear is "net presence monitor", meaning that I spend a lot of time googling for anyone who's talking about Kayuda and then responding to them. (This duty is shared with the lovely and talented Jaime btw, in case she happens to read this. :>)
Sharing is going to be going in this week. You will be able to give up to three other users read/write access to each of your kayscapes. In another couple of weeks we will be introducing a subscription plan. Subscribers will get a bunch of extra features, including unlimited invites. So, as long as at least one person is willing to subscribe, any number of people can share a workspace.
If you have any questions, or any suggestions on how we could improve Kayuda, please feel free to drop me a line. My email is dstorrs at wotanllc dot com.
quote:Originally posted by Zalmoxis: Does anyone have suggestions of something else we could use?
The criteria:
Free, online, shareable tool Some sort of visual outlining/mapping feature The ability to easily edit and arrange the outline The ability to associate large chunks of text with each point of the outline/map
We may just end up sharing a Kayuda log in until the sharing feature is developed, but if there's something else out there that is better, I'd love to hear about.
Obviously, I'd prefer for you to use Kayuda, but if you find that it doesn't suit you, you might want to look at: