A versatile system for any field of application

BSCW Classic is in use around the world. With more than 500 functions, it offers the right solution for every task. Turn your ideas into reality!

Our proven system has been supporting information flow and knowledge management at numerous companies for more than 20 years.

Want even more variety?

Then BSCW Social is the solution. This modern and user-friendly version offers a wide range of additional features in addition to the list of tried-and-tested features, such as audio-video conferencing, AI connection, collaborative editing, …

Find out more on the product page of the BSCW Social.

Document management made easy

Create work groups, synchronize documents with your PC or store documents in your system via drag and drop.

Our system covers the following functions:

• Change notifications
• Version management and back-up function
• Rights management
• Document templates
• Document release process

Direct Document Editing

• Text and HTML documents may be edited directly in your Web browser
• All types of documents may be edited directly by using their respective local applications and the BSCW Desktop-Extension

Everyone wants lean processes

Use BSCW to map and optimize your processes. Set up tasks and define individual steps in so-called project phases, so that your company is even more streamlined in the future.

This versatile feature makes it possible to implement efficient scheduling and progress monitoring for projects. Set up task responsibilities and specify goals to ensure an optimal workflow.

Simple meeting and appointment coordination

Never miss another meeting and stay organized. Without calendars, managing daily life would be impossible. That’s why the calendar is a vital element of the BSCW system.

Always up-to-date, regardless of the project

Create calendars for various folders. Add meetings and appointments for other members so that the workflow is even more simple and organized.

Simple and fast meeting coordination

Use our integrated tool to streamline the laborious process associated with scheduling meetings.

Simple polls about any topic

Obtain opinions and feedback with the comprehensive poll and survey feature, or plan projects, events, celebrations and much more.

Forums offer a platform for public discussions

The discussion forum, which is especially valuable when it involves complex topics, can lay out comprehensive structures in a clear fashion, making it a perfect tool for tracking discourses, even over longer periods of time.

Send messages to individual persons or groups, fast and efficiently

The chat feature is one of the most important functions for designing fast and productive work activities. Eliminate the flood of e-mails and use our chat function for real-time communications with your colleagues.

Provide direct document feedback?

Use the comment feature to leave comments anywhere within a new document, making your work activities even more effective and intuitive.

Versatility across the entire workflow– BSCW can be adapted at any time to the specific needs of your project
 

Over the years a large number of projects have been implemented with the BSCW system. Below we have highlighted several successful examples.

enArgus

The central information system for the advancement of energy research provides project initiators, the government and the public uniform and centralized access to information regarding research activities in the area of energy in Germany. This platform thus helps to make government funding policies in the area of energy research more transparent.

https://www.enargus.de/
 
 
CloudTeams

The CloudTeams collaboration platform is an EU-sponsored project developed under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT. The team platform component that is used by software developers is an adapted and enhanced version of the BSCW system.

 
 
e.tract

This web-based platform is designed especially for secure collaboration in international clinical studies. It helps clinical research organizations, institutes and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies rationalize their processes and structure the exchange of information more effectively.

http://www.e-tract.net

We HOST the service for you.
No technical knowledge is required.

We manage the technical stuff in the background so that you can carry out your activities worry-free.

Register now and test BSCW Social for 90 days at no cost!

Take a look at our prices!

Prefer to host the service in-house?
We can support you!

Download the BSCW server software now and learn how you can save costs by hosting the service yourself.

Download now and test BSCW Social for 90 days at no cost!

Take a look at our prices!

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Download BSCW Classic

Download the current version Classic for your server today.

Please read the installation instructions and the additional information in the administrator’s manual. When upgrading an existing BSCW-Server, please also check the upgrade hints in the administrator’s manual.

I have read and I accept the licence agreement and the copyright notice.

BSCW Classic:

BSCW-Server-Distribution for Unix:
Installation hints

BSCW-Server-Distribution for Windows:
Installation hints

BSCW Classic:

BSCW-Server-Distribution for Unix:
Installation hints

BSCW-Server-Distribution for Windows:
Installation hints

Version history

End User System Requirements (Client)

• Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Internet Explorer (version 11), Safari
• JavaScript (required)
• Platforms: Windows-PC, Unix/Linux, MacOS

Additional Requirements

• Alternative access through WebDAV applications and MS Office
• Some optional features require Java (Java plugin version 1.7 or later)

Server Platform System Requirements

• UNIX operating system: Linux (e.g. Debian/Ubuntu, Enterprise Linux/RHEL), BSD
• Windows™ operating system: Windows Server 2019/2022, Windows 11
• Apache-Web-Server (version 2.4) or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS7, IIS8 or IIS10)
• External SMTP server on UNIX/Windows or local SMTP server (e.g., postfix/sendmail on UNIX) required for mail delivery
• Software packages required for installation:
  • Python Runtime Environment
    • BSCW 5.3 Version 3.8 – 3.11
    • BSCW 5.2 Version 2.7
    • (www.python.org , Open Source)
  • On a Windows Server environment, the Python for Windows extensions are additionally required – Build#214 or later is needed
    (sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32)
  • The index-based full text search (optional) additionally requires the PyLucene software (version 3.6)
• A supplementary database is not required.

The server platform hardware resources depend on the number of users and server load. The following example is a BSCW server configured with enough capacity to service around 200 users:

• Intel Core/Xeon or AMD A-series/OpteronTM (>3.2 GHz) based 64bit server system, at least 4 cores
• 8 GB RAM, min. 500 GB HDD

Access to the server is through a web browser (or other clients such as WebDAV Explorer or MS Office) exclusively using HTTP protocol (port 80) or via an SSL connection (port 443).

Installation of BSCW Desktop Extension (formerly Zope Editor)

BSCW External Editor for Windows

BSCW External Editor for Mac

Download the BSCW desktop extension installation program and execute the installer. After installation, change your personal preferences by calling

• Options / Preferences / General / File Handling

In section External editors, select what document types you want to be directly edited by local applications, e.g. Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer.

When you now select a file for editing on the desktop in BSCW, a .zem file is downloaded first. If necessary, select when opening this file for the first time that files of this type should always be opened with the BSCW desktop extension – respectively Zope editor.

The BSCW desktop extension is based on the Zope External Editor and was originally developed by members of the Zope/Plone community for the content management framework Zope. The software is provided under the Zope Public License. OrbiTeam provides a Zope External Editor edition which is optimized for BSCW.

Trouble shooting

Windows Defender warnings: You may ignore Windows Defender warnings and proceed with the installation. The BSCW desktop extension, is a rather recent development and not yet treated as a trusted application.

Proxy Server: If you are using a proxy server, you have to configure the BSCW desktop extension so that it also uses this proxy server. Using Windows, you can easily edit the configuration file of the BSCW desktop extension (ZopeEdit.ini) by starting the BSCW desktop extension from the Start menu. Check your local proxy configuration in your Web browser (or ask your system administrator) and enter the details into the configuration file of the BSCW desktop extension (proxy, proxy_user, proxy_pass). More configuration hints are available in the README.

Additional languages for BSCW

The official BSCW software distribtution already contains resources for four different languages: English, German, French and Spanish. Below you find further language resources you may install with your BSCW server.

To add a new language to the BSCW server, select the appropriate language from the list below and follow the installation instructions once the download is complete.

Note: End users should configure their language preference in the BSCW options.

We gratefully acknowledge the help of the following translators who generously put their work in the public domain:

Aymeric Poulain Maubant, Jipo, Brest, France
François-Marie Blondel, INRP, France
Anna Grabowska, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland
Andras Lukacs, WBPMU, Budapest, Hungaria
Jan Broos, Janine Bader, Gerad Blijker, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan Halter, Netherlands
Bruno Emans, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, project ITCOLE
Daniela Mencarelli and Simon Wieser, Zurich, Switzerland
Mauro Massaro, University of Rome, Italy, project ITCOLE
Carles Giménez and David Ayala, Unitat Informática del Departament de la Presidència de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain
Miquel Colomer, University of Barcelona, Spain
Leandro Navarro Moldes, Maria Clara Rozo and Josep Turro, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Mildred Sarmiento Meneses, edeb‚ digital, Barcelona, Spain
Denise Lima, Luiz Manoel Cunha, Suzi Carneiro and Paulo César de Oliveira, Embrapa Information Technology, Brasil
Nektarios Mamalougos, University of Athens, Greece, project ITCOLE
Tänis Kelder, Tiina Kikerpill and Merik Meriste, University of Tartu Academia Dorpatensis, Estonia
Keiichi Nakata, University of Tokyo, Japan, courtesy of OrbiTeam Software
Leonid Pesin, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany, courtesy of FernUniversität Hagen, project ILSO
Orla Møller, Frederikshavn, Denmark
Magnus Fant, Alkit Communications, Luleå, Sweden, and Johnny Jacobsson, SNIC, Umeå, Sweden

We would be very pleased to hear from people interested in translating the BSCW interface to other languages — please e-mail us at support@orbiteam.de.

Available Language Versions

The following is a list of the available language versions for the current BSCW Classic version:

Please note that some of the language extensions are not completely translated. They will still function with the BSCW server however. Any information that is not translated will simply be displayed in English.

• Catalan:
   bscw-5.1-ca.zip
• Danish:
   bscw-5.1-dk.zip
• Greek:
   bscw-5.1-el.zip
• Estonian:
   bscw-5.1-et.zip
• Farsi:
   bscw-5.1-fa.zip
• Finnish:
   bscw-5.1-fi.zip
• Hungarian:
   bscw-5.1-hu.zip
• Italian:
   bscw-5.1-it.zip
• Dutch :
   bscw-5.1-nl.zip
• Polish:
   bscw-5.1-pl.zip
• Portuguese:
   bscw-5.1-pt-br.zip
• Russian:
   bscw-5.1-ru.zip
• Albanian:
   bscw-5.1-sq.zip
• Serbian:
   bscw-5.1-sr.zip
• Swedish:
   bscw-5.1-sv.zip
• Chinese:
   bscw-5.1-zh.zip