1. A server-side collaboration system comprising: a plurality of discussion threads that are software defined items configured to be established for a topic and configured to be managed by a collaboration session leader, wherein said collaboration session leader is a user authorized to define the topic, to create the plurality of discussion threads for the topic, and to assign a set of participants to each created discussion thread, wherein the topic is related to a topic model, wherein said topic model is a hierarchical organization of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein each of the discussion threads represent a distinct logical grouping of data related to a central subject of the topic, and wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are for a time bound event, wherein said collaborative session leader is able to assign different permissions for access to the portion of discussion threads granted to the participants for a time before the time bound event, for a time during the time bound event, and for a time after the time bound event; a server-side software component configured to permit remotely located clients to post and view content by discussion thread during a real-time collaboration, which includes a text exchange capability, wherein client using participants are only permitted to post content to discussion threads as authorized by the collaboration session leader; and a server side data store configured to maintain a viewable history of posted content organized by discussion thread, wherein said software defined items and said server-side software components are specified by a set of programmatic instructions stored within a machine readable media configured to be read and acted upon by a server-side computing device, which is used for online collaborations.
1. A server-side collaboration system comprising: a plurality of discussion threads that are software defined items configured to be established for a topic and configured to be managed by a collaboration session leader, wherein said collaboration session leader is a user authorized to define the topic, to create the plurality of discussion threads for the topic, and to assign a set of participants to each created discussion thread, wherein the topic is related to a topic model, wherein said topic model is a hierarchical organization of the plurality of discussion threads, wherein each of the discussion threads represent a distinct logical grouping of data related to a central subject of the topic, and wherein at least a portion of the discussion threads are for a time bound event, wherein said collaborative session leader is able to assign different permissions for access to the portion of discussion threads granted to the participants for a time before the time bound event, for a time during the time bound event, and for a time after the time bound event; a server-side software component configured to permit remotely located clients to post and view content by discussion thread during a real-time collaboration, which includes a text exchange capability, wherein client using participants are only permitted to post content to discussion threads as authorized by the collaboration session leader; and a server side data store configured to maintain a viewable history of posted content organized by discussion thread, wherein said software defined items and said server-side software components are specified by a set of programmatic instructions stored within a machine readable media configured to be read and acted upon by a server-side computing device, which is used for online collaborations. 5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the topic model is defined by code written in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) based language.