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VisiCalc Creator Developing WikiCalc

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the i-desire-a-wiki-about-pie dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet has an article about a new wiki that is trying to combine the collaboration of wiki technology and the data manipulation attributes of a spreadsheet. The creator of VisiCalc, Dan Bricklin, is working on an alpha version of WikiCalc for sometime late in February." From the article: "'It holds a lot of promise, both because it's using the spreadsheet metaphor, which is the one thing people know for working with quantitative information and because 'there's nobody better in the world to build this thing,' said Ross Mayfield, CEO of collaboration software maker SocialText. To Mayfield, WikiCalc is the answer to a problem that has been percolating for some time in the world of IT. That is, he said, that spreadsheets have traditionally been a single-user application screaming for functionality that could let multiple people edit data quickly and easily. "

7 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Yup, exactly what buisness needs by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Funny

    The ability to make more absolutely pointless spreadsheets.

    Hell, why not just a regular wiki anyway? I figure 90-95% of all the spreadsheets I see don't do any calculations, they're just used as a way to put things in columns.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  2. Prior art? by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    a new wiki that is trying to combine the collaboration of wiki technology and the data manipulation attributes of a spreadsheet.

    Isn't that how Enron ran its entire accounting department?

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  3. WikiCalc by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    WikiCalc - the site where you get to decide what 2 + 2 equals...

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    This guy's the limit!
  4. I don't even understand what that means by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    What exactly would you do with a spreadsheet/wiki cross if you had one? I just can't visualize a use case. It sounds like the people doing this chose their product by taking a bag full of buzzwords written on refrigerator magnets and pulling out two at random. "Oh, we're going to make an AJAX... microcontroller!"

  5. Careful where you tread... by RyoShin · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is all well and good, until every cell reads "Penis".

  6. Wiki by BigZaphod · · Score: 3, Funny

    Uh oh... Is "wiki" becoming the new "i" which was the new "e" a few years ago?

    --
    Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
  7. Next up: Wordstar by maynard · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yup. Now all we need is Michael Shrayer, the original author of The Electric Pencil, to write a decent wordprocessor / text editor for Wiki and we'll have an online Office replacement with wiki capabilities....

    Oh how I love all the recent computing innovation!