how to avoid divergent edits?

[Matt Morgan]

On 08/09/2004 09:26 AM, Mike Ramirez wrote:

>On Mon, 2004-08-09 at 06:19, g wrote:
>  
>
>>how do you recommend i solve this problem:
>>
>>the director sends a spreadsheet to members of the board, several of
>>them reply with changes, the director then has several divergent
>>versions of the spreadsheet to reconcile.
>>
>>possible groupware solutions?:  twig?  phpgroupware?  egroupware? 
>>skyrix?  ensemble?  lotus notes?  other?
>>
>>i'd like to hear of experience with any of the above, or other better
>>ways to address the issue, or pointers to similar discussions.
>>
>>tia,
>>greg
>>
>>    
>>
>
>Hi.  
>
>Isn't NFS supposed to address this.  I haven't used NFS myself just read
>into a little.
>  
>
NFS or other file-sharing will help some, but it won't help in the case 
when people actually have differing opinions they want to express. 
Because it would mean there's only one current version--but maybe people 
want to keep multiple version. I think the original poster is on the 
right track and some kind of groupware system, with workflow options, is 
a very good solution here.

In the past I programmed Lotus Notes/Domino, and this kind of 
mini-workflow/version-tracking system could be set up in an afternoon, 
by someone with a little training or experience. Back in the Domino 4.6 
days there was even something called "Lotus Components" where you could 
embed editable spreadsheets in Notes "documents" and use programming to 
compare cells in different versions, for example (that would take longer 
than an afternoon). I don't know if Components or something like it is 
still available. It's probably more than most people need.

Notes/Domino is pretty heavy on its administration requirements; it's 
better in an institution where you can have at least one person 
administering it, and another doing programming. It's best when you're 
big enough to use it a lot, for example as your email server and maybe 
even web server, and have support/training staff dedicated to it as well.

We currently use OpenACS (http://openacs.org) for our workflow/intranet 
system and it's extremely powerful, but has a tough learning curve. Once 
it's installed and going, it requires a lot less admin than Notes, though.

There are lots of other systems, many PHP-based, like the OP mentions 
and they may all be great but I can't comment on them. I've heard some 
good things about Drupal lately.

good luck,
Matt