wiki

SocialText gets a new CEO and Series C funding

Open-source wiki company SocialText just pulled down a Series C round of funding ($9.5 million from Draper Fisher Jurveston, Omidyar Network, SAP Ventures, Intel Capital, plus a few angel investors). It also got a new CEO, Eugene Lee.

Congratulations to Ross Mayfield and the SocialText team. My one question in this is why no new investors joined in the round. If I remember right, the investors above are the same who invested in the last round. This either means that the Series C round was so hot that the existing investors didn't want to share it, or that … Read more

Mindtouch rising in the open-source wiki market

One of the great things about open source is that it provides a very tangible way to measure interest in a product: downloads.

Looking at the most recent download statistics for open-source wikis, I was surprised to see that Mindtouch has been on a tear. I bumped into Aaron Fulkerson, one of Mindtouch's co-founders, at OSBC last year and didn't think much about it.

No offense to Aaron. You've got to remember, I was the guy who yawned at SugarCRM when it first debuted. My track record isn't so great. :-)

Mindtouch has hit 100,000 installations and grows by ~50% each month. Why? Reading through the blogosphere, it's because of its ease of use and rich functionality. I may give it a spin over the next few days....

Where does it go from here?… Read more

Wikimedia Foundation kicks off 2007 fund-raiser

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit parent company of Wikipedia and its anyone-can-edit brethren, announced on Monday that it has begun its annual fund-raiser. The organization has said that proceeds from the fund-raiser, which runs through December 22, will be used to pay for technological and corporate improvements as well as program development--specifically expanding its operations to global regions and languages that are currently underrepresented.

"We believe that everyone in the world should have access to education, regardless of race, nationality, gender, age or economic background," Wikimedia Foundation founder Jimmy Wales, who also started a for-profit spin-off, Wikia, said … Read more

What's a wiki?

This week on the Real Deal podcast, Tom and I tackle wikis. Using lessons from the giant Wikipedia, we look at how to set up a wiki for your own business or interest, and what to expect from its users.

Related links:

Wikipedia Wikia Lostpedia PBWiki WetPaint

If you want to join the ongoing discussion, come on over to the Real Deal forums.

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Wetpaint offers up wikis for Facebook: I don't get it

Wetpaint is officially launching their whiteboard wiki app for Facebook tomorrow morning, although it's been alive and kicking in Facebook's apps directory for the past two weeks. The idea behind it is about as simple as it gets--just stick an entire Wetpaint wiki inside of Facebook, and edit things with your Facebook friends. In addition to a blank canvas to do whatever you want with, the service has also included student-geared templates to get you going, including a notes tool, party planner, and dorm hall wiki. The real draw here is that you'll be able to start … Read more

Jottit is the insta-wiki

Here's a cool tool that's kicked off a bit of a Twitterstorm this evening: Jottit. It's a very simple, Web-based text editor and publishing service. It can create a brand new Web page or wiki in about 10 seconds flat. For an example, you can see a draft of this story, which I composed in Jottit, as a Jottit page.

Jottit is also part wiki. The review page I just linked to is closed to edits, but it's easy to create a page that anyone can tweak. Here's one, for example (if you try it … Read more

Rumor that just won't die: Google Presentations 'any day now'

Despite many signs pointing to a release of Google's presentation service at last week's Office 2.0 Conference (coverage), the only thing we got were some new tweaks to Docs and Spreadsheets that went largely under the radar. This morning, The Inquirer is claiming that things are stirring in the depths of Google's Mountain View headquarters, and the app is set to launch "any day now." They're also claiming that the app will be integrating technology from both of Google's slide show and presentation acquisitions Tonic Systems and Zenter, which the company bought … Read more

Micro-productivity: man vs. machine, divergence vs. convergence

According to a McKinsey & Company study of US economic activity, "Raising the productivity of employees whose jobs can't be automated is the next big performance challenge." The study argues that "as more companies come to specialize in core activities and outsource the rest, they have greater need for workers who can interact with co-workers, partners, and vendors," supported by highly personalized organizing and communication tools. 40 percent of labor activity, says McKinsey, comes not from making things or from traditional transactions but from what the consultancy calls the "Interaction Economy," which it … Read more

Google expected to launch wiki and presentation services this week

Several signs are pointing to the imminent launch of Google Wiki and the company's long-awaited presentation service at this week's Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco.

The biggest indicators are history and vague comments by Google officials. Last year's Office 2.0 brought the launch of Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and Jonathan Rochelle, the product manager for Google Spreadsheets, will also be at hand for the opening panel at the conference kickoff on Thursday. Between this, an almost-demo by Google's CEO Eric Schmidt of the presentation application, as well as a post on the Official Google Blog … Read more