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Looks to be a bit visually snazzier than wikicalc, a wiki/spreadsheet combo idea from Dan Bricklin. I first read about his project last autumn. I wonder if he was involved in this at all, or if the Google guys were inspired by his project or if there's absosmurfly no relation at all?

The ChiaPaint thing is amusing, but what's amazingly ironic is that Dan Bricklin seems to be working on an Ajax spreadsheet called wikiCalc. Or maybe you already knew that...

For the record, I have the feeling that if AjaxWrite were a great word processor then people would be using it instead of reviewing it. And it's XUL, not ajax.

This is the home page for the wikiCalc Alpha Test

Introduction

The wikiCalc program is a web authoring tool for pages that include data that is more than just unformatted prose. It combines some of the ease of authoring and multi-person editing of a wiki with the familiar visual formatting and data organizing metaphor of a spreadsheet. It can be easily set up to publish to basic web server space accessed by FTP and there is no need to set up server-side programs like CGI. It can, though, run on a server and be used with nothing more than a browser on the client.

wikiCalc is currently released in Alpha test. This means that it is largely untested, has bugs, and is missing features that will hopefully be in the 1.0 release (and Beta versions leading up to that). It does, though, implement a large enough subset of the targeted features to get a good idea of what the product is all about. It is also useful in its own right and seems to be able to create, publish, and maintain a wide variety of web pages already. For example, this page and many of the ones it links to about wikiCalc were created with the wikiCalc Alpha. (The graphical design comes from a CSS file and the side bar is in a simple custom template. Much like a blogging tool, you can automatically wrap the output in static nice-looking stuff if you don't want the default.)

The Alpha release is available for use on Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix, and other platforms that can run the Perl language. On Windows you need only download a single .exe file that will install wikiCalc, a Perl runtime, and assorted sample files. Other platforms need to have Perl already installed (but they commonly come with it pre-installed).

The program is written by Dan Bricklin (me) and is available under a GPL 2.0 license. When shipped it will also be available with a dual-license non-GPL proprietary license. You can read my essay explaining a little more about what wikiCalc is and why I created it on the "About wikiCalc 0.1" page on my blog.

Note that this is the 0.2 alpha version which uses AJAX techniques when editing cells. It includes a "Demonstration Setup" option to get you up to speed quickly if you just want to see what a browser-based spreadsheet feels like.

wikiCalc is currently aimed at users who are comfortable figuring out how best to use a new tool. It is very flexible and there are many options to meet many different needs. It should be especially of interest to the DIY (Do It Yourself) and VAR (Value Added Reseller) crowd. Such people can set it up for use by others.

. . . skipping part about downloading and running . . .

News and Reviews

Here are links to some of what others have written about wikiCalc:

David Berlind on ZDNet

Software proprietors love to frame the debate on money. This keeps software proprietors in the running for gaining, or in this case, maintaining a client. Microsoft is perfectly willing to give copies of its proprietary software to people gratis in order to keep them divided and helpless. There's plenty of money to be had with support contracts and upgrades down the road. This is why Microsoft's rep was so interested in framing Massachusetts' problems around document preservation and future reading on the argument of how much the project would cost the state. If you haven't heard the discussion for yourself, you should listen to it.

Massachusetts wasn't concerning themselves with software acquisition just yet. They made this very clear in their discussion. But it appears that PriceWaterhouseCoopers is. So, it becomes relevant to point out that framing the debate on software acquisition around the freedom to run, share, and modify computer software is a superior argument to the cost of the software. Alas, the open source movement doesn't encourage anyone to think about software freedom; that movement's message focuses on software development chiefly to businesses that develop software. Talking about software freedom to all computer users has been the long-held ground of the free software movement.

If you don't understand what a open and useable document format I urge you to
listen to the MA open format meeting. This is about nothing more than storage of
a document is a fashion that allows everyone equal access. MS can choose to implement the standard or they can choose not to. It is about preserving the sovernty of data owned and created by the MA govt.

http://www.softwaregarden.com/cgi-bin/oss-sig/wiki .pl?OpenFormatMeetingSept2005

I highly doubt MS is going to support this document format as it will not only
undermine their proprietary lock in advantage but accellerate it's demise.

The audio transcript is outstanding and shows that MA fully understands the
implications of their decision.

See my post here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=163269&cid=136 37741

There is a recording of the Mass Technology Leadership Council discussing their reasons here: http://www.softwaregarden.com/cgi-bin/oss-sig/wiki .pl?OpenFormatMeetingSept2005

Basically they're very afraid of proprietary document formats (and rightly so). Especially when they consider archival purposes. 20 years from now do you want to find a copy of Word '98 to be able to read old state documents? Right now I can go to the basement of Harvard and read law books from the 1800's!

They're also concerned about requiring the public to purchase expensive software from a single vendor in order to view "public" documents. They state time and time again what their requirements for a doc format are, and that if Microsoft were to offer one they would consider it. MS, unsurprisingly, does not offer one...

It's not actually a budget thing (though lord knows MA needs to do something about it's spending). It's about "sovereignty" and the availability of documents long after archive and to the general public.

You can listen to a recent meeting of the Mass Technology Leadership Council here:
http://www.softwaregarden.com/cgi-bin/oss-sig/wiki .pl?OpenFormatMeetingSept2005

It's long, but they say time and time again they're only concerned with the document format and it's "openness." And they do a *great* job of shooting down Microsoft on this point.

I suppose a few developer's bosses know the ins and outs of the license issues but there is a lot to know even though its not that hard to get educated. Just because you write software and have a stake in the compensation and legal consequences of software [mis]use only makes you interested, not informed.