https://authorea.com/

Looks good, though it seems to be geared towards the natural sciences. It couldn't find the social science books I wanted to insert as references. It returned mostly journal articles.

Unfortunately the free account only gives you one private article to try.

Editorially seems to be a more generic option (not just for academic writing) with similar features to Authorea:

https://editorially.com/

Dr Andus wrote:

Editorially seems to be a more generic option (not just for academic
writing) with similar features to Authorea:

https://editorially.com/

Having taken it out for a quick test drive, Editorially turns out to be one of the nicest online writing apps with Markdown support I've tried so far. The editor does apply the styling but still shows the Markdown code (which is nice), it doesn't force upon you a split screen type preview window, it saves every keystroke, and it allows you to publish directly to Wordpress or sync with Dropbox. It has a good set of export options. It looks very polished to me, even though it's still in beta. I'm not so interested in the collaboration options, but it's one of their central selling points. It's a lot more "distraction-free" writing environment than Authorea.

Editorially is closing. It's a pity. It was the nicest collaborative online Markdown editor I've tried. I wish some of the big players could have recognised its potential and bought it. What other hope is there for small niche players like this one?

"Today brings some sad news: Editorially is closing its doors. The application will remain available until May 30, at which point the site will go offline. (...) Editorially has failed to attract enough users to be sustainable, and we cannot honestly say we have reason to expect that to change."

Dr Andus wrote:

Editorially seems to be a more generic option (not just for academic
>writing) with similar features to Authorea:
>
>https://editorially.com/

Editorially turns out to be
one of the nicest online writing apps with Markdown support I've tried
so far. The editor does apply the styling but still shows the Markdown
code (which is nice), it doesn't force upon you a split screen type
preview window, it saves every keystroke, and it allows you to publish
directly to Wordpress or sync with Dropbox. It has a good set of export
options. It looks very polished to me, even though it's still in beta.

I think there's just too much competition in the online authoring space. Without a mobile app (that supports offline editing), such entrepreneurial efforts are almost guaranteed to fail. Which is why I watch Gingko with concern. Quip is a good example of the cross-platform approach - and it's not bad. It's not great, either; Gingko is much more exciting!

It's difficult for software developers! If they're ambitious, that means producing apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone (possibly also for Amazon Fire and Blackberry), optimised for both mobile phones and tablets. And if they're seriously ambitious, it also means producing desktop apps for Windows and Mac at the very least, and ideally also for Linux (which implies multiple distributions by definition). 6Wunderkinder (developers of Wunderlist) have been wrestling with this quandary for a while.

MadaboutDana wrote:

It's difficult for software developers! If they're ambitious, that means
producing apps for Android, iOS and Windows Phone (possibly also for
Amazon Fire and Blackberry), optimised for both mobile phones and
tablets. And if they're seriously ambitious, it also means producing
desktop apps for Windows and Mac at the very least, and ideally also for
Linux (which implies multiple distributions by definition).
6Wunderkinder (developers of Wunderlist) have been wrestling with this
quandary for a while.

The other option could be to go down the ChromeOS route (also with an offline app). That would take care of desktops and laptops that can run a Chrome browser, and then there are the Chromebooks themselves, slowly taking off. Hopefully ChromeOS would connect with Android one day (there seem to be signs that things are moving that way).

The problem with Google though is that they are focusing on the lowest common denominator, rather than sophisticated users like the Editorially user-base. It's all the cutting-edge niche applications that are suffering because they don't have the financial muscle to even let the world know they exist (Editorially is truly excellent but few people seem to have heard about it, so it couldn't even make its way out of beta).

We would need a business like Write Bros that specialises in and buys up a whole range of writing apps, so there can be a critical mass and a single place where you can buy them. Except that Write Bros don't seem to be developing the software they acquire all that much and treat them more like cash cows (at least that seems to be the case with Outline 4D).

P.S. I just saw that Christian has a rundown of the available collaborative online writing tools that support Markdown:
http://christiantietze.de/posts/2014/02/editorially-shutting-down/

Not directly relevant to this topic, but at least partially related; Piggydb now supports Latex for mathematical expressions:
http://piggydb.net/2014/02/16/piggydb-v6-17-incremental-search-by-tag-and-mathjax-support/

I don't do math but I found it brilliant; I am really awestruck by the endless possibilities of using plain text to represent anything...