Writeboard

Writeboard is an online collaboration utility for sharing writing work.

Writeboard is another web app from 37signals, the same people behind Backpack.The aim of Writeboard is to take advantage of the internet to allow multiple persons in remote locations to work simultaneously on the same document, with every change being saved and attributed to the user who has made it. Anybody familiar with the “Track Changes” feature in Microsoft Word will immediately be at home with such a function. Writeboard combines the power of the “Track Changes” idea with the connectivity of the internet.Once you've started a Writeboard, you get the digital equivalent of a white board. You can scribble text and change things all you want. When you're done, you sign off using your name and save the changes. Later, somebody else van view your changes and add their own. At the end of, or during the process, you can compare all the different versions. What's less clear, however, is what happens when two simultaneous users are both modifying the same text at the same time. There should be an option to merge the changes. Other basic features, such as a the ability to format text (bold, underline, italic, etc.) and a spell-checking facility, are also criminal in their absence. And writing very long texts or documents containing imagery or complex tables is next to impossible. But if it's just the basics you are looking for, then you won't mind anyway.

Writeboard is essentially the most basic version of a so-called “Wiki” app, where multiple users can change a passage of text and add their ideas. Writeboard's main selling point is that you can create a password protected, private text area that only you and your friends/colleagues have access to.

The designers decided to go for complete simplicity and ease of use when designing this site. There are no complicated menus or buttons to distract you, just the Writeboard itself. This is good, as it means that you can concentrate on the task at hand, without being distracted.

No registration process is required. All you need to do is specify a name for your Writeboard, and give it a password. This allows you to restrict access only to those people who know the password.

Writeboard is a free service, and there doesn't seem to be any advertising present either.

Writeboard is a useful site containing a very basic utility, namely the ability for multiple users to scribble on a virtual whiteboard, with all changes made by each user being automatically saved. For true collaboration with more complicated texts, there are better solutions available, such as Google Docs.

http://www.writeboard.com