17. A method of contributing to a collaborative effort comprising: using a computer system as part of creating a collaborative document based in part on a template including using a master document to track and maintain user changes, wherein the template includes document XML, one or more authored section content controls, and custom XML parts, and can be used to define a number of participants that can interact with the collaborative document; specifying a number of sections associated with the collaborative document, wherein an author selected from the number of participants can be associated with one or more of the number of sections; associating the collaborative document with a workspace for interacting with the collaborative document including providing an in-memory manifestation of a state of the collaborative document that includes data, metadata, content, and actions; assembling the collaborative document using an assembly document proxy to build the collaborative document using stored information and an assembly document object to create the number of sections and one or more authored section content controls based in part on one or more of a first property associated with a begin editing operation, a second property associated with a completed section operation, a third property associated with a section status, a fourth property associated with an allow to reassign operation, and a fifth property associated with an allow to insert sections operation for the collaborative document; using the workspace to add content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document; applying a number of constraints to the collaborative document, wherein the number of constraints determine users permitted to interact with the number of sections of the collaborative document, the number of constraints defined in part by an editor role, an author role, and an observer role, wherein the editor role can be used to assign sections to authors including enabling an assigned author to reassign a section to other authors responsible for contributing content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document including editing root section metadata as part of assigning sections, updating section status, and restricting sections; notifying one or more of the number of participants of a change to the collaborative document; and, generating a complete copy of the collaborative document for each participant as part of an assembly process using the workspace and the assembly document proxy.
17. A method of contributing to a collaborative effort comprising: using a computer system as part of creating a collaborative document based in part on a template including using a master document to track and maintain user changes, wherein the template includes document XML, one or more authored section content controls, and custom XML parts, and can be used to define a number of participants that can interact with the collaborative document; specifying a number of sections associated with the collaborative document, wherein an author selected from the number of participants can be associated with one or more of the number of sections; associating the collaborative document with a workspace for interacting with the collaborative document including providing an in-memory manifestation of a state of the collaborative document that includes data, metadata, content, and actions; assembling the collaborative document using an assembly document proxy to build the collaborative document using stored information and an assembly document object to create the number of sections and one or more authored section content controls based in part on one or more of a first property associated with a begin editing operation, a second property associated with a completed section operation, a third property associated with a section status, a fourth property associated with an allow to reassign operation, and a fifth property associated with an allow to insert sections operation for the collaborative document; using the workspace to add content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document; applying a number of constraints to the collaborative document, wherein the number of constraints determine users permitted to interact with the number of sections of the collaborative document, the number of constraints defined in part by an editor role, an author role, and an observer role, wherein the editor role can be used to assign sections to authors including enabling an assigned author to reassign a section to other authors responsible for contributing content to one or more of the number of sections of the collaborative document including editing root section metadata as part of assigning sections, updating section status, and restricting sections; notifying one or more of the number of participants of a change to the collaborative document; and, generating a complete copy of the collaborative document for each participant as part of an assembly process using the workspace and the assembly document proxy. 20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising communicating the collaborative document as part of a client and server-based communication network.