Etherpad

Etherpad is an open source collaborative editor for documents. It records who wrote each part of a text, and it runs on a server you choose.

Several people can type in the same document at once, and each person's text is coloured by author. A timeslider lets you move through the document's history, so you can see how it changed over time. Plugins add features such as comments, tables, images and drawing, so the editor can grow with your needs.

• Edit documents together in real time
• Show author colours for each change
• Scrub through the full history of a document
• Add features through a large plugin library
• Run it on your own server

Public bodies, schools, communities and developers who want to keep document data on their own servers. Anyone who needs a clear record of who wrote what may find it useful.

Etherpad is licensed under Apache 2.0 and is free to use. You can try a public instance run by community members, or install your own server, which needs git and Node.js. Public instances have their own rules, so check them before using one for sensitive work.