A network protocol for remote collaborative authoring on the Web

Collaborative authoring tools generate network effects, where each tool's value depends not just on the tool itself, but on the number of other people who also have compatible tools. We hypothesize that the best way to generate network effects and to add collaborative authoring capability to existing tools is to focus on the network protocol. This paper explores a protocol-centric approach to collaborative authoring by examining the requirements and functionality of the WebDAV protocol. Key features of the protocol are non-connection-oriented concurrency control, providing an upward migration path for existing non-collaborative applications, support for remote' manipulation of the namespace of documents, and simultaneous satisfaction of a wide range of functional requirements.