The Open Collaboration Tools

The Open Collaboration Tools project has been introduced by Dr. Miro Spönemann and Mark Sujew. This open-source initiative aims to enhance remote teamwork by providing libraries and tools for live-sharing IDE contents. The project allows users to collaborate in real-time, highlighting text selections and cursor positions while discussing in a separate chat app. The initial release includes components like a VS Code Extension, an Eclipse Theia extension, a server application for authentication, and an open protocol with TypeScript libraries. The project focuses on plain text documents initially but plans to expand to support various content types like Jupyter Notebooks and diagram editors. The Open Collaboration Protocol facilitates authentication, session creation, and data exchange between users. The project emphasizes vendor neutrality, extensibility, on-premise deployment, and open-source licensing. Interested parties can access a public instance of the tools at api.open-collab.tools and are encouraged to deploy their instances for data security. TypeFox intends to continue investing in the project's development and integration capabilities.