• Excerpts

GitHub system for writers

People discussing a collaborative, version control system for writing projects and non-programmers. Some fascinating ideas and user experiences exist in these posts. Good ideas. It's an interesting area of software development that includes the Web and native apps for desktop and mobile.

I'm most interested in Web/native apps for writing, collaborating, and managing content. So that would includes software programs such as blogs, message boards, wikis, editors, content management systems, and knowledge management systems.

• Aug 29, 2013 - Github For Writers
• Hacker News discussion - 137 comments

2012 Wordpress activity

• http://ben.balter.com/2012/02/28/github-for-journalism-what-wordpress-post-forking-could-do-to-editorial-workflows/
• http://postforking.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/introducing-post-forking-for-wordpress/

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/github/all/1
https://github.com/WiredEnterprise/Lord-of-the-Files
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/github-revisited/

Excerpts

From the original blog post by Loren:
http://madebyloren.com/github-for-writers

Some barriers make it intimidating for non-developers to jump in, even if the platform can technically handle it:

• Tech jargon: non-developers don't understand branches, forks, commits, rebasing, cloning, etc.. and they don't care to learn.
• Command-line first: while GitHub is slowly moving Git functionality into the browser, the primary focus is still on the command-line. The in-browser features are meant to supplement the command-line, not replace it altogether.
• Diffs: GitHub diffs (changes in a file) are designed for code: line-by-line diffs instead of words, sentences, and paragraphs.

GitHub is built by developers for developers.

• The Limitations of GitHub for Writers
• GitHub for Teachers
• We Need a Github of Science

So, I've been working on this crazy idea - I'm calling it Penflip.

The goal is to build a platform with the primary features of GitHub (teams, issues, pull requests, discovery, project management, built on Git) but with an interface optimized for writers, along with some other useful features:

• In-browser editor
• Auto-generated project structure
• LaTeX support: math and science need it.
• One-click publishing: one click to convert to PDF/ePub/mobi/etc, complete with layout and styling.
• Mobile-friendly: because writing can happen anywhere.
• Diffs for writers

Oh, and did I mention that all of this happens in the browser, from any computer, anywhere? And because Git is running beneath the surface, the technically inclined can clone projects onto their computers and use desktop editors instead. But it's not required.

blog post comments

You should check https://draftin.com

draft doesn't seem to mention Latex anywhere? It seems to be entirely based on html. I'm not sure that html would be powerful enough for scientific writing

No it doesn't support Latex, it's only about writing and markdown. But it still solves the problem for many people.

You should check out authorea: https://www.authorea.com

Think this has huge potential for Education > see http://openplan.cc for more.

For LaTeX, check out http://www.mathjax,org

nice. probably the closest thing out there is draftin. here's a nice bog post on some of the metaphors between the git tech jargon and the functions of everyday, word users http://kivo.com/blog/git-for-the-masses

I started using Editorially ( http://editorially.com ) which as collaborating option on which you can write in Markdown.

I guess you know about Ben Balters Wordpress Plugin Post Forking? http://ben.balter.com/2012/02/28/github-for-journalism-what-wordpress-post-forking-could-do-to-editorial-workflows

I do believe a great version control should be use on not only code and writing, it should work on a lot of way. Control versions, share with others, work with other talents etc

Hacker News comments

A lot of programmers already find it awfully hard to wrap their heads around how git works. I can only imagine how hard it will be for non-programmers to (it doesn't suprise me that the successful example used is written by mathematicians).

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean it can't be done. In fact, if there are ways to visually simplify git and make it more intuitive for non-programmers, those techniques could wind up making git even better for programmers too.
I could also imagine a convergence of the git model and the wiki model someday -- where anyone can edit (like Wiki), but where there are branches, merging, etc. Obviously, a lot of internal wiki's don't need such complicated version control, but for things like Wikipedia, it could be amazing.

And the main attraction for users over, say, Google Docs, is that your changes don't overwrite others'. The fact that your edits create a "branch", that then others can accept/reject/modify/merge, is a vast improvement in creative collaboration.

#writing - #github - #collaboration - #blog_jr