Structured coauthoring

Abstract

A system is presented for structured coauthoring of a document, the system comprising a server. The server includes one or more documents organized into sections, a document permissions module that stores user access permissions for each section of a document, a document update processing module that processes requests from a user to share document updates with other users and that processes requests from a user to receive document updates from other users and a document rendering module that renders a document for display on a client so that sections of the document are updated with shared document updates made by users. The user access permissions determine the extent to which a user can modify each section of the document.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method executable on a computer system for co-authoring a document by a plurality of users, the computer system having at least one data storage device communicatively coupled to at least one processing unit, the method comprising:
 accessing the document, wherein the document is organized into a plurality of sections;   receiving first user access permissions associated with a first section of the plurality of sections of the document, wherein the first user access permissions define an extent to which a first user of the plurality of users can access the first section of the plurality of sections of the document;   displaying a control adjacent to each section of the document, wherein the control for a given section is selectable for setting one or more customized rules for changing one or more user access permissions associated with the given section of the document;   in response to a selection of the control adjacent to the first section, setting customized rules for changing the first user access permissions for the first section upon satisfaction of a condition;   determining that the condition has been satisfied; and   in response to the determination, changing the first user access permissions for the first section in accordance with the one or more customized rules.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the first user access permissions include a level of access selected from the group consisting of: full control, read/write, review only, comment only, read only, and no access. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving second user access permissions associated with the first section of the plurality of sections of the document, wherein the second user access permissions define an extent to which a second user of the plurality of users can access the first section of the plurality of sections of the document.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 receiving updates to the first section of the document, wherein the updates are made to the first section according to the second user access permissions.   
     
     
         5 . The method according to  claim 4 , wherein after updates are received to the first section of the document, the updates are not available to the first user until the second user sends a request to share the updates with the first user. 
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the first user to receive the updates;   determining that the request to share the updates by the second user was received; and   displaying the updates to the first user.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving changes to the first user access permissions associated with the first section of the document, wherein the changed first user access permissions define a different extent to which the first user can access the first section of the document.