Authorea is a web-based software as a service (SaaS) platform for collaborative document creation that supports multiple input and output formats. Built by CfA astronomers using established open source technologies and boasting recent successes such as a 200+ author CERN paper, Authorea provides a model for how STScI content could be handled in the JWST era.
Authorea provides a web interface for multiple users to collaborate on documents. All document changes are recorded using the git version control system. The text can be written in either LaTeX or Markdown markup languages. A variety of different outputs are possible as well as document formats for science journals and research proposals including HST.
Authorea was built by CfA astronomers, its leadership team of 6 includes 2 astronomy post-docs and a Harvard Astronomer: Eli Bressert, Alberto Pepe, and Alyssa Goodman. The CfA/SOA has a history of producing technology successfully adopted by STScI going back to DS9 and continuing with OED employing XXX to develop XXX.
Git is a popular, modern version control system used by software developers to track and manage line-by-line changes to software. This same system, with all its organizational advantages, is leveraged in a transparent manner by Authorea. It allows power users to access to full functionality of version control with git while remaining transparent to average users.
Authorea supports both Markdown, an extremely simple markup language, and LaTeX, a more robust markup language and one that is familiar to astronomers. Since LaTeX is the lingua franca of science publication it will allow the science staff and the astronomy community to leverage their existing document creation skills. The Markdown format is an accessible alternative.
Because LaTeX/Markdown are both standardized markup languages they support translation into other formats such as HTML5, PDF, plain text, and ePub. Beyond just output medium, Authoria can provide format templates, and already does so for HST proposals. This feature could be extended to include JWST proposals, TIRs, ISRs, and even IHBs.
If Authorea were to disappear tomorrow we would still retain all the information and the change sets. Because Authorea uses standard technologies, STScI retains absolute freedom with its data. At anytime the full dataset along with a full history of retrievable changes can be downloaded in a standard text format. This provides STScI the flexibility to change documentation methods in the future as well as build their own tools around these normalized formats.
http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ http://git-scm.com/