The Clay software grew out of a desire to provide a team of physically dispersed software developers with the ability to work cohesively on various coding projects. This initial desire explains Clay's strong incorporation of traditional solutions (chat, bulletin boards, email, whiteboard) to problems facing current software collaboration efforts. However, the Clay model has always kept in mind the desire for any type of document set to be the focus of collaboration. As a consequence, the Clay architecture is highly pluggable and distinctly flexible.

One of the primary things we are seeking to do is develop a set of guidelines for collaborative projects. The development of these guidelines compliments the rules we enforce in the Clay software. The guidelines include methodologies of working as well as strategies for division of labor, resources, and compartimentalization. In addition, Clay seeks to congregate tools already developed for collaboration and document how to use them. (ms netmeeting)

Idea: not only can we same-time edit the same document, we ought to be able to compare two different versions of the code together, side by side, to see where the programmers had different ideas. (like, i write a conn pool, and I put in a neat little trap for illegal numbers, but holmes wrote the main one and we should just meld my changes in with his, but we need to compare and talk about them...syncronous code review)

Why the name "Clay?"

The reason for the name Clay is twofold. First, any creative collaborative work can easily be expressed by the metaphor of clay, one of the first materials bent towards art and necessity. Clay is gradually molded and shaped towards a final end. Second, since the Clay software server application enforces rules of conduct and arbitrates the communication of various clients, it is named after the Great Compromiser himself, Henry Clay (1777-1852).

"He was one of the most partisan, hot-headed, and polarizing politicians of his day. Yet he was also a statesman possessing an unsurpassed ability for brokering differences, for finding the middle ground, for soothing and consoling opposing passions into compromise and reconciliation."
H. Clay Bio page