Socialtext Partners with Dan Bricklin on wikiCalc

Dan Bricklin (inventor of wikiCalc -- the social spreadsheet. Dan brings a rich understanding not just of spreadsheets, but open source and social software. You can thank visiCalc, the original killer app, for the Personal Computing revolution and bringing PCs into enterprises from the Bottom-up. It may take some time, but Socialtext, wikiCalc and the community will develop an important contribution to Social Computing. Andy McAfee defined Enterprise 2.0 as the use of freeform social software within companies. Freeform in that the application does not impose structure prior to use. Since the inception of Socialtext, we have avoided the temptations of structure. Not just because one man's structure is another's barrier. But because it immediately divides the world into those who can structure it, those who cannot. Wikis begin as a blank page, just like spreadsheets. Some think this is a weakness, but it is actually a strength -- because it asks all the right questions. How should we use this tool? What should we apply this to? What kind of buckets should we put information in? What's my role? To make a wiki work, and all IT for that matter, agreement on how to use the tool makes it work. When tracking down errors, but provides an audit trail. But spreadsheets, like other killer PC apps, were not designed for a networked world, but for a single users. Today the problem isn't just people playing wikiCalc Beta under an Open Source GPL distribution. Socialtext Open Source Edition, functionally equivalent to our commercial wikis for users, will be released next month at OSCON. Yes, I know it's a little odd for startups to communicate such news in advance, but there is nothing to fear, and it's part of being open with a community. Wikiwyg, wikiCalc and the Socialtext Open Source Edition will all be released under the same OSI complaint Open Source license, based upon the Mozilla Public License. For more information on Open Source licensing, see Dan's Del.icio.us | Yahoo! My Web | Ross Mayfield is CEO and co-founder of Ross Mayfield's Weblog which focuses on markets, technology and musings.