1. A method, comprising: maintaining a workspace in a cloud-based collaborative environment for a plurality of collaborators, wherein the plurality of collaborators of the workspace perform activities on one or more work items within the workspace, wherein each of the one or more work items have individually configurable synchronization permissions, and wherein the collaborators maintain local copies of the one or more work items at their respective computers; receiving a first event notification from a synch client application at a first collaborator's computer of a first change to a local copy of a shared work item stored in the workspace, the local copy stored in a local synch folder at the first collaborator's computer, wherein the first change represents a hard conflict with a second change to the shared work item by a second collaborator; responsive to receiving the first event notification: determining a synchronization permission for the first collaborator; and enabling synchronization between the local copy of the shared work item at the local synch folder of the first collaborator's computer and the shared work item at the workspace if the first collaborator has the correct synchronization permission; and responsive to enabling synchronization: receiving a first copy of the local copy of the shared work item from the synch client application at the first collaborator's computer, the first copy having a name that includes an identification of the first collaborator; storing the first copy in the workspace without overwriting the shared work item; updating a last state information of the workspace to a current state information of the workspace; transmitting a second copy of the shared work item to the synchronization client at the first collaborator's computer, the second copy including the second change to the shared work item; notifying the first collaborator that the first change was not merged into the shared work item in the workspace; selecting one or more collaborators from the plurality of collaborators to notify of the uploaded first copy that includes the first change based on synchronization permissions associated with the shared work item; sending a second event notification and the current state information indicating the uploaded first copy that includes the first change to the one or more selected collaborators of the workspace; and responsive to sending the second event notification, receiving one or more synchronization requests from the one or more selected collaborators of the workspace, wherein the one or more synchronization requests are configured to establish synchronization between the local synch folders of the at least one or more selected collaborators and the workspace.