Section 1.2. Storing and Sharing

1.2. Storing and Sharing

Documents store and share information, but there are two aspects that documents sometimes ignore: content modification and change tracking. To see this handled well in a web-based document library, visit the W3C web site, which indicates change using formatting as shown in Figure 1-1.

If you want to find the reason for a change, you can visit a discussion at the link to the HTML working group. You have to be a member of the group to see the discussion, but that restriction is appropriate since reading and participating in discussions are key benefits of joining the W3C.

The W3C put a lot of thought and effort into designing and maintaining their site, which does an excellent job of storing and sharing knowledge about web standards. It's a library of current standards, the history of those standards, discussions, and lists of related work.

SharePoint lets you create the same type of document libraries, histories, discussions, and lists by gathering the work from around your office and making it available from a web page. Figure 1-2 shows the SharePoint workspace I used to create this book.

animal 1-1. W3C uses diff- marked web pages to share changes

animal 1-2. Sharing chapter files with my publisher via SharePoint

I didn't put as much thought or effort into my site as the W3C did, but the two sites have a lot in common. They both:

• Contain a library of documents.

• Record change history for those documents.

• Provide a forum for online discussions.

• List links to related information.

• Permit members different levels of access.

• Allow access from any location via the Internet.

From the workspace, my editors can read and comment on my chapters, track changes, try the samples, retrieve art files, and measure my progress against the schedule.