Best practices when employing file geodatabase that is going to be used and edited by multiple users?

Use a file GDB as the master (on server), extract COPY to 6 personal GDB (2GB limit) or 6 FGDB if over 2GB. Individuals edit each GDB then place in folder with a template FILE Geodatabase [empty but has schema set up] for nightly APPEND (geoprocessing server)

Schema TEST —Input dataset schema (field definitions) must match the schema of the target dataset. An error will be returned if the schemas do not match.

Disadvantage: Data Conflicts - One Feature Multiple edits by 2 plus users. Append will overwrite previous appended file. Can be detected by a compare < this is cheaper than getting an Arc Info licence.

Successfully implemented in a previous role...

Can be also achieved with FME 2010

This cannot be done with ArcView. (Editing the same PGDB/FGDB by several users at the same time.) Look into to upgrading to ArcEditor: ArcEditor allows multiple users to simultaneously modify and edit data. http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arceditor/key-features.html

As a side note; I was involved with developing an application where we tried to emulate multi-user editing with personal databases and it ended up being fairly complex with mixed results. The reasoning was the same; a multi-user database was too costly. It ended up costing a lot more trying to develop such environment. In the end it would have been better to invest into ArcSDE or like solution.

I agree, Attempting to utilize the proprietary (fgdb or pgdb) db format created by esri and managed through their licensing is a fruitless path. If you are determined to not spend license money you will spend resource (your time and the time of other employees) money. What you are proposing is doable with an opensource rdbms or a proprietary lite version of rdbms, and some interoperable tools (most of the good ones though are not free). So in the long run you either need some expensive experience or some good tools, both are costly. Arcview just is not the tool to get-er-done. Task functionality matrix