Bibledit allows several users to work on one Bible at the same time. At present basic collaboration is possible, but for the future advances are planned.
Normally Bibledit stores all data in the data directory. The book of Genesis, for example, would be stored in this data directory, file <project>/Genesis/current-version. Each user would have his or her own copy of this book, and collaboration would be difficult.
Bibledit has a simple mechanism to overcome this problem. Instead of storing the text of the book in file "current-version", this file "current-version" becomes a link that points to another file. This other file is the one that contains the text of Genesis.
If a couple of users would all do the same, and would not store Genesis locally, but instead would all link to that centrally accessible file, then basic collaboration would be possible. Whosoever opens Genesis in Bibledit really opens that file on the server. He makes modifications and saves the file. If somebody else one opens that file, then he would get the changes made by the previous person.
Note that this collaboration is basic, in the sense that it allows only one person at a time to make changes. If two persons were to open the same book, and the first would make changes, and save them, and the second one too, then only the changes of the second would be saved, overwriting the changes made by the first.
Enough of the theory, how do we get this working?
1. Start off with one instance of Bibledit, create a project, and get some books in it.
2. Copy all those books to a centrally accessible location. Give them names, e.g. genesis, exodus, and so on. It will work easiest if all books are copied into the same directory, but this is not necessary.
3. Remove that project from that one instance of Bibledit. It is no longer needed.
4. In Bibledit recreate the project, and import all books. Import them from the centrally accessible location. While importing, make sure that the option "Link to them" is chosen.
5. Do the same on all other workstations.
Basic collaboration will now work.
This system allows various Bibledit system to work on the same Bible, or it allows Bibledit to work on the data of Paratext.