software or service to collaborate on a data model?

I'm trying to find a tool where a lot of people can work on a data model collaboratively (doesn't have to be at the same time, a checkout mechanism can work too). Embarcadero has an ER application called ER/studio which apparently comes with a repository system that acts like typical version control software. That sounds great except ER/studio is expensive and this is a non-profit and open source organization where we encourage members to even contribute small changes.

What's the best solution? Either downloadable software or a web service would work. We don't mind paying, but the cost can't go up with the number of participants...

I looked at Cacoo briefly, looks very good as far as collaboration. But the connectors are very limited, can only export to PNG and the ER objects are limited as well (can't connect foreign keys to ids of other tables). I also looked even more briefly at Gliffy. Looks like Gliffy focuses more on being a full featured diagram tool while Cacoo focuses more on the collaboration aspects. But Gliffy can get expensive with many users, I've written them an email about our situation... Cacoo is free, at least for the time being.

UPDATE: Ended up with Gliffy, they have been really great. I definitely recommend their service to anyone else.

Aw, you changed your avatar. I liked your old one!

Philip Kelley 2010-08-19 18:45:52

@Philip Kelley: I've still got the old one, need to find themed ones now. But you could always [get the tshirt](http://store.hijinksensue.com/product/unicorn-poop-shirt)

OMG Ponies 2010-08-19 18:49:53

Dia is perfect for what we want, thanks. However, there's no collaboration/sharing mechanism aside from passing a file back and forth. Sure, we could include that file in a version control system that only allows 1 person to check it out at a time. But then we can't easily see what changes have been made to it and by whom over time (well we'd have to rely on the commit comments).

at 2010-08-19 20:41:39

@at: Ask the Dia community - maybe they have something in the oven?

OMG Ponies 2010-08-19 20:50:52

Since Dia stores its drawings as XML, standard version control tools will work handily for passing around changes. And Distributed VCS like git or mercurial (both open source, cross platform) would be better still.

msw 2010-08-20 00:45:39

Would you mind sharing what you believe is the best solution? ER or otherwise...

at 2010-08-19 20:42:16

Sorry, my idea of collaborative ER is a napkin, pen, and colleagues in a restaurant; if we're lucky, someone had the foresight to bring actual writing paper.

msw 2010-08-19 23:56:32

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software or service to collaborate on a data model?

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