Last week Google previewed their collaborative online spreadsheet. The sneak peak shows how you can share, edit, collaborate and chat in real time. Some people suggested “this represents a major attack on Microsoft’s desktop dominance“. Others see the Google announcement as just a “bit of a yawn“.
Some months back, a few of us highlighted Dan Bricklin’s wikiCalc project. Dan’s the man behind VisiCalc, the very first spreadsheet application for personal computers, and so his new initiative needs to be taken seriously. In a much more exciting move than Google’s announcement, Ross Mayfield’s SocialText has heralded a deal where they will redistribute and co-develop Bricklin’s product. Ross explains the rationale and positioning on the SocialText website. wikiCalc is an open source tool that combines the freeform social software approach with the spreadsheet metaphor. He says:“One way that a wiki, and wikiCalc, enables social use of a tool without imposing structure is the properties of transparency and memory. In a wiki, a copy of every edit is saved with attribution. This supports trust and accountability. Given the nature of spreadsheets, wikiCalc takes this one step further, creating a revision history of every single edit to any cell — not just when you save and the undos before. This not only holds the promise of tracking down errors, but provides an audit trail.”
When you understand the implications and strength of this concept, and look at Google’s implementation, it is obvious which is the most important. This is a smart move by both Ross and Dan. To find out more, go here to see a screencast of Dan explaining wikiCalc.
Technorati Tags : SocialText, wikiCalc, Dan+Bricklin, Ross+Mayfield, Google, wikis, spreadsheet, business+2.0
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