This letter / 01
Keep the personal decision with the person
A shared editor can give everyone controls while leaving nobody sure whose decision is final. Collaboration needs an understandable account of authority.
We originally imagined the shared family-album editor as a generous product. Everyone invited could add images, replace them, change captions and move pages. One link and one set of controls seemed simpler than asking a group to choose roles. The proposal looked collaborative because no participant was technically excluded from the work. It became less convincing when we watched how people understood the changes being made by someone else.
