Patent ID: 6859821

Claim:
A local network-capable device adapted for collaborative operation and communication over a network with at least one remote network-capable device to enable the local network-capable device and the remote network-capable device to cooperatively edit the same data, each of said local network-capable and remote network capable devices comprising: A) a memory for storing a local copy of the data in accordance with a data model; B) a data-change engine coupled with the memory, and responsive to a plurality of data change requests that have an absolute order relative to each other, for controlling storage of the local copy of data in the memory in accordance with the data model and making changes to the local copy of the data; the data change requests including a locally-generated data change request and a remotely-generated data change request; and C) a dynamics manager, coupled with the data-change engine, and responsive to the data change requests for controlling the engine and coordinating execution of the data change requests; wherein the dynamics manager, responsive to the data change requests, can cause the making of received data changes in the absolute order, and, responsive to a data change request being received out of the absolute order, the undoing of the selected data changes to a point where a data change corresponding to the out-of-order data change request should have been made, the making the out-of-order change and the remaking of the undone data changes in the absolute order so that the same data changes are made in the same order to the local copies of the data stored in both the local network-capable device and the remote network-capable device.