July 24th, 2006
JotSpot's nascent wiki-based office suite
JotSpot CEO Joe Kraus thinks that wikis are trapped in "nerdy clothing." He’s launching the latest version of JotSpot Wiki 2.0–combining the wiki collaboration foundation with pre-defined page types that provide productivity application functionality–to bring wikis into the mainstream.
"Traditionally you can only collaborate on one page, with text and graphics, with a wiki," Kraus told me. "In the real world you have calendars, spreadsheets and photos. With the new version of Jotspot we are bringing the metaphor of wikis to the productivity functions of an office [suite], sharing access, permissions and version control, and letting users organize a site the way they want."
In some ways, JotSpot is redefining the notion of a wiki, as a platform for a wide range of applications. "Lots of wiki purists would say that JotSpot is not a wiki any more," Kraus said. "That would be like saying Microsoft Word is not word processor because it’s not like WordStar."
"Think of it a wiki-suite, as trying to build an extensible wiki suite," Kraus continued. "Just as Salesforce.com was marketed as an applications before opening up as platform, we are doing the same. First we have to get lots of users on the platform, and get them inspired to build their own page types. My hope is that we will inspire people to extend JotSpot by giving good examples."
JotSpot has published APIs for all application functionality, and is planning to provide documentation for developing themes and integrating with the platform, Kraus said. "Ultimately, anyone can build a page type. We want people to build and sell applications and integrate into our page type framework," Kraus said. Future enhancements include integrating JotLive with JotSpot, which will allow group editing in real time; a whiteboard page type and email lists.
JotSpot Wiki 2.0 includes Web, spreadsheet, calendar, document store and photo gallery pages
JotSpot Wiki 2.0 repackages some of its pre-existing applications, and now includes page types for collaborative calendars, spreadsheets, file repositories, and photo galleries, as well as the standard wiki Web page. However, don’t expect full featured applications; for example, the photo gallery page is limited and doesn’t support bulk uploading. Users can configure color schemes and add logos to wikis without any coding, and create links to pages inside and outside of the wiki and to documents within the wiki.
Wiki 2.0 is free for five users, with a maximum of 10 pages; $9.95 per month for 10 users and 100 pages; $24.95 per month for 25 users and 300 pages; $69.95 per month for unlimited users and 1000 pages; and $199.95 per month for unlimited users and unlimited pages.
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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