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Generally speaking there are two main forms of usage for a shared editor:
- Collaborative editing of a passage of text
- Annotation of a passage of text
In practice, when working in groups, we observe that shared editors
also get used to a degree as additional communication channel, but
this can largely be though of as annotation, even though these
meta-annotations are not directly associated with existing text.
Thus it is important for a shared editor to be able to easily support
both these communication modes as transparently as possible.
If we satisfy the interactivity requirement above, it is vitally important, whether annotating or modifying text,
that the person making a particular change is easily identifiable, even
though several changes may be being made simultaneously.
Jon CROWCROFT
1998-12-03