JotSpot 2.0 Delivers Powerful Functionality without the “Nerdiness” of Traditional Wikis
Marries the Wiki Metaphor with Capabilities of Microsoft® Office®

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 24, 2006 – JotSpot, the first application wiki company, today announced the immediate availability of JotSpot 2.0, the next-generation of its award-winning wiki application platform. Unlike traditional wikis which allow users to collaborate on only one kind of information: text, JotSpot 2.0 gives users the freedom to collaborate on all types of information. JotSpot 2.0 provides new “page types” that help users quickly and easily create collaborative calendars, spreadsheets, file repositories, documents, and photo galleries.

“Traditional wikis are too nerdy and only offer one type of collaboration. This has been a barrier to the mainstream adoption of wikis,” said Joe Kraus, co-founder and CEO of JotSpot. “JotSpot has redefined what a wiki is by removing the limitations of traditional wikis and marrying the wiki metaphor with some of the capabilities of Microsoft Office. We’ve combined the familiarity and functionality of desktop applications like Office with the collaborative power and flexibility of wikis so users can quickly and easily collaborate on all types of information.”

JotSpot 2.0 eliminates the complexity and nerdiness of wikis and delivers powerful new functionality that helps users collaborate on all types of information. New features of JotSpot 2.0 include:
* Pre-defined page types: help users quickly and easily create collaborative calendars, spreadsheets, file repositories, and photo galleries with one click. The calendar page type allows users to create shared calendars. Spreadsheets are now integrated in the wiki as a page type. The new spreadsheet page type offers the familiarity and functionality of desktop spreadsheet applications including support for formulas, the ability to wrap text in a cell, copy and paste support, and the ability to ‘shift-click’ to select a range of cells. The file repository page type makes it easy to share files. The photo gallery page type allows users to create a page with images or photos. Uploaded images are displayed as thumbnails and a slide show.
* Control over the look and feel: now users can configure the color scheme of their wikis and add logos without learning a markup language like HTML or CSS.
* New link picker: gives users the ability to easily create links to pages inside and outside of the wiki and to documents within the wiki. Other enhancements to the navigation and look and feel include a Microsoft Outlook-type sidebar to display available wiki applications.
* Powerful permissions model: gives complete control over who sees what information. Users can make pages entirely private, shared among invited users, or make them public. Now users can provide a wiki page, such as a corporate calendar, that is available for the entire company to view, but only certain users have the ability to edit and update the calendar.

“The new features in the JotSpot wiki are very well implemented and are a huge leap forward in functionality over traditional wikis,” said Eric Matson, Director of Quality Assurance at Zazzle, the Internet’s customized products marketplace. “We’re looking forward to consolidating our existing, out-dated wiki tools onto one platform powered by JotSpot.”

“We’ve created page types for specific tasks like creating a web page, calendar, spreadsheet, file repository, and a photo gallery. When users go to the JotSpot wiki, they can simply click ‘create new page’ and instantly create a spreadsheet, a corporate intranet, and other collaborative wikis,” said Scott Johnston, Vice President of Products at JotSpot. “Every page type has all of the collaborative power and flexibility of wikis: they are editable, allow permissions, offer version control, and each page type is appropriate for the task at hand. This is something that only the JotSpot wiki platform can provide.”

“Wiki market evolution is accelerating,” said Peter O’Kelly, Research Director of Burton Group’s Collaboration and Content Strategies service. “Incorporating familiar mainstream computing concepts and tools such as spreadsheets, calendars, and a variety of document/page templates, and making them readily accessible in ‘the wiki way’ will lead to widespread wiki adoption in organizations of all types and sizes.”

AVAILABILITY and PRICING
JotSpot 2.0 is available immediately at www.jot.com. Pricing for the hosted service is free for five users/maximum of 10 pages; $9.95/month for 10 users and 100 pages; $24.95/month for 25 users and 300 pages; $69.95/month for unlimited users and 1000 pages; and $199.95/month for unlimited users and unlimited pages.

About JotSpot
JotSpot, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is the first application wiki company. Founded and led by Excite.com co-founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, the company is pioneering do-it-yourself application publishing to enable anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications. More than 2,000 organizations and 30,000 users are currently using applications built on top of the JotSpot wiki platform. JotSpot wiki applications for work include: JotSpot Project Manager, for managing projects; JotSpot Bug Reporter, for tracking bugs; JotSpot Live, for real-time group note-taking; and a blogging application. JotSpot also offers an on-site wiki which includes all of the features of a JotSpot hosted wiki, but resides behind a corporate firewall. JotSpot wiki applications for life include: JotSpot Family Site, free private family websites; and JotSpot Class Reunion Planner, class reunion websites. For more information, please visit Read the rest of this entry »

JotSpot is a great place to work! The San Francisco Chronicle featured JotSpot in an article about how some Silicon Valley companies foster a healthy corporate culture by allowing employees to play video games at the end of a workday. JotSpot’s weekly session of Unreal Tournament is a morale booster according to JotSpot employee, Reuben Antman: “We try to let loose once a week. It makes people laugh. It’s huge for morale.”

CIO Magazine issued a news alert about the JotSpot-powered eBay wiki. According to Al Sacco at CIO Magazine, “A wiki site’s value increases as more and more users add comments and additional information, and considering eBay’s vast user base, the eBay Wiki’s content will likely expand rapidly.”

Red Herring covered eBay’s announcements, including the JotSpot-powered eBay wiki. The article includes comments from JotSpot CEO Joe Kraus on the mainstream adoption of wikis and analyst commentary on what the new Web 2.0 technology means for eBay: “Analysts agreed the initiatives are unlikely to have any effect on eBay’s bottom line, but they should increase buyer and seller usage, engagement, and loyalty.”

Business 2.0 blogged about the eBay Wiki and other JotSpot applications. The article points out how the eBay partnership can have a significant impact on JotSpot’s business: “this single deal could catapult Kraus’ startup by opening up his platform to anyone of the more than 100 million people with an eBay ID.”

Forbes.com wrote about the eBay wiki and the business benefits of user-generated content. Forbes also cites how JotSpot and eBay have made wikis more mainstream: “Though wikis are most popular among the tech-savvy set, such as the programmers and technologists present at the developers conference over the weekend, Whitman chose to present the new eBay wiki to the entire user base, composed of small business owners, retirees and hobbyists.”

eBay’s Meg Whitman announced new community features during her keynote speech at eBay Live on Tuesday. Joe Kraus spoke with PC Magazine and explained how eBay’s JotSpot-powered wiki will work. “Rather than reading back-and-forth communication about a particular topic, inquisitive eBayers can go to the wiki and read an aggregate definition. Although JotSpot will host the page, it will have the same look and feel of any other eBay page with the familiar logo and search functions.”

ZDnet posts about the JotSpot-powered eBay Wiki and says that eBay’s Wiki could be the world’s largest wiki platform for a commercial website. Richard MacManus also wrote that “use of wikis from one of the Internet’s biggest consumer companies may be vital to the growth of wikis outside of tech and enterprise circles.”

Donna Bogatin of ZDnet wrote about the new eBay Wiki and how eBay has partnered with JotSpot to help users “learn, contribute and share” on the eBay Wiki. According to eBay, the JotSpot-powered wiki is “a collection of fact-based articles written and maintained by eBay Community members.”

JotSpot Wiki Helps eBay Users Create and Share Community-Driven Content

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 14, 2006 – JotSpot, the first application wiki company, today announced that it is teaming up with eBay to power the new eBay Wiki site. The new eBay Wiki will allow eBay’s community of U.S. buyers and sellers to share user-generated information. Powered by the JotSpot platform, this new wiki will help the eBay community to communicate in new ways. On the eBay Wiki, eBay members can quickly and easily learn about specific topics of interest, contribute their expertise, share insight and opinions, and comment on published articles.

“Our relationship with JotSpot is part of eBay’s continued focus on providing solutions for our community to successfully buy and sell on eBay,” said Rachel Makool, senior director of community development for eBay. “JotSpot’s wiki technology enables us to create a new avenue for our users to share content across a broad range of eBay-specific topics.”

Unlike a traditional website where pages can only be read, on the eBay Wiki community members will be able to edit and publish information quickly and easily. Because the articles on the eBay Wiki are user-generated and based on facts and real users’ experiences, the wiki becomes more valuable as more articles are published, edited, and shared.

“With the JotSpot wiki, eBay users get more value from their collective eBay experience by publishing, improving, and sharing content about eBay-related topics,” said Joe Kraus, co-founder and CEO of JotSpot. “There is a natural synergy between the flexibility of the JotSpot wiki and the communal nature of the eBay community.”

“eBay’s relationship with JotSpot is an important milestone in the mainstream adoption of wikis,” said Peter O’Kelly, research director for Burton Group’s Collaboration and Content Strategies service. “By bringing the simplicity and power of wikis to eBay buyers and sellers, JotSpot will help eBay community members productively connect and collaborate in new ways.”

JotSpot Wiki-Powered Communities
JotSpot is committed to helping companies use wikis to cost-effectively establish a dialogue with their customers, improve brand loyalty, and improve search engine optimization through user-generated content. With JotSpot’s powerful and flexible wiki platform, companies can reap the benefits of Web-based, user-driven content to establish a two-way dialogue with their customers, partners, and affiliates. Like the eBay Wiki, a company wiki is customizable and consistent with each company’s look-and-feel. To learn more about the business benefits of a JotSpot wiki, please visit: http://www.jot.com.

“The JotSpot-powered eBay Wiki showcases the power, scalability, and flexibility of the JotSpot wiki platform,” said Scott Johnston, director of Wiki Applications for JotSpot. “Wikis are changing the way companies like eBay communicate with their customers and JotSpot is proud to be the user-driven content foundation for the eBay community.”

To learn more about the eBay Wiki, please visit: http://www.ebaywiki.com.

About JotSpot
JotSpot, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is the first application wiki company. Founded and led by Excite.com co-founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer, the company is pioneering do-it-yourself application publishing to enable anyone to create, publish, and share collaborative and personalized wiki applications. More than 2,000 companies and 25,000 users are currently using applications built on top of the JotSpot wiki platform. JotSpot wiki applications for work include: JotSpot Spreadsheets, for sharing online spreadsheets; JotSpot Project Manager, for managing projects; JotSpot Bug Reporter, for tracking bugs; JotSpot Live, for real-time group note-taking; and a blogging application. JotSpot also offers JotSpot Wiki On-Premise, which includes all of the features of a JotSpot hosted wiki, but resides behind a corporate firewall. JotSpot wiki applications for life include: JotSpot Family Site, free private family websites; and JotSpot Class Reunion Planner, class reunion websites. For more information, please visit http://www.jot.com.