Integrated Document Collaboration System for Real-Time Search and Editing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for creating, searching, and collaborating on electronic documents are separate, leading to inefficiencies in resource allocation, duplication of effort, and outdated content, causing frustration and waste in human and computing resources.
Innovation Solution
A collaborative document authoring environment that integrates document search, content creation, and collaboration, allowing real-time editing, messaging, and metadata indexing to facilitate simultaneous editing and discovery of actively edited documents, reducing inefficiencies and resource waste.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If document search, content creation, and collaboration are performed as separate activities, then each activity can be handled by dedicated tools, but this leads to duplication of effort, inefficient resource allocation, and outdated content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges separate document creation, search, and collaboration tools into an integrated collaborative document authoring environment. Multiple users can simultaneously edit the same document through a unified interface, with real-time synchronization of edits. The system combines word processing, search engine, and communication capabilities into a single integrated platform, eliminating the need to switch between separate applications and reducing duplication of effort.
Solution Approach 2:
The collaborative document authoring environment provides multi-functionality by enabling users to create, edit, search, and communicate about documents within a single system. The platform serves multiple purposes: it functions as a word processor for content creation, a search engine for locating documents and information, and a communication tool for real-time collaboration. This universal platform handles diverse document-related tasks without requiring separate specialized tools.
2Loss of information
If separate search engines are used to locate document authors and content, then search functionality is available, but this consumes unnecessary network bandwidth and processing resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines search functionality directly within the collaborative document authoring environment, eliminating the need for separate search engine operations. The integrated system can locate documents, authors, and content within the same platform where collaboration occurs, reducing network traffic by keeping search and collaboration data within the same system boundary.
Solution Approach 2:
The collaborative document authoring environment acts as an intermediary between users and document resources. Instead of users directly querying separate search engines and then accessing documents through multiple systems, the integrated platform mediates all interactions, providing unified access to documents, authors, and collaboration tools through a single interface that reduces overall network bandwidth consumption.
3Ease of operation
If multiple users work on documents separately without integration, then each user has full control over their document, but this results in duplication of effort and inefficient human resource allocation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple user editing sessions into a single collaborative document space. Multiple users can simultaneously access and edit the same document through the integrated authoring environment, with the system automatically managing version control and conflict resolution. This eliminates duplication of effort by ensuring all users are working on the same current version of the document rather than creating separate copies.
Solution Approach 2:
The collaborative document authoring environment provides real-time feedback to users about what other users are doing with the document. The system displays information about co-authors, their current editing activities, and suggestions for collaboration. This feedback mechanism enables users to coordinate their efforts, avoid redundant work, and efficiently allocate human resources by knowing when to collaborate versus when to work independently.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are described herein for document collaboration discovery. A collaboration system enables users to collaboratively author documents. The collaboration system receives edits to a document in real or near real time, and indexes the edits in a search index. The collaboration system can also receive and index metadata associated with the document. The collaboration system can also receive a search query from a user and perform a search of the search index. If the document is identified by the search, the user can request to be admitted as an active editor of the document. The user can also request to join a real-time messaging session with other active editors of the document. The active editors can be notified of the search terms that led the user to the document, and indicate whether the user is to be admitted to the document as an active editor or the real-time messaging session.