The people who bring you QuickTopic, a “free preposterously easy instant discussion space” have created an interesting tool for collaborating on a document online. Called Quick Doc Review, it gives you
“…an instant private space for gathering comments on any HTML document (Microsoft Word documents too). Your group can comment on each paragraph, using QuickTopic’s easy private forum. Comments are all in one central place. Much better than mailing documents around and consolidating feedback. And it’s private, but still easy to access.”
Basically, the service appends a discussion forum to each paragraph of your document, capturing the commenter’s log-in name (anonymous posters are allowed), the time of the comment, and the date and time of any subsequent edits by the author. Privacy is only assured by obscurity — meaning, it’s not a great place for confidential or sensitive document. However, if businesses are interested in installing Quick Doc Review on an internal server, they offer a contact link.