JotSpot

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jotspot is a hosted wiki service, running its own wiki software.

http://www.jot.com

Looks like they are out of beta testing (and advertising with google adSense)

The information [comparing jotspot of with other wiki software] is particularly interesting.

JotSpot has been acquired by Google perhaps because JotSpot has oriented itself to including other applications like spreadsheets, calendars, blogs, email lists under one big tent -- I think it is the one big tent approach plus a great editorial interface that got Google thinking that JotSpot might be the glue (bailing wire :) that could hold (lash) all of the applications that Google has been acquiring over the last several years.

JotSpot has free accounts and also premium additional services (like number of pages, and number of registered users) but as with other acquisitions: JotSpot is temporarily not taking new accounts while it adjusts to how Google does things ... which includes making premium features available at no cost to the user as they did with Blogger a few years back.

If you would like to take JotSpot for a test drive check out http://inetgroup.jot.com and, if you would like to be an administrator to take a look behind under the hood drop me an email. JohnDeBruyn (November 1, 2006)

Discussion

I haven't actually tried this out, but it looks pretty impressive. Judging by that [comparison info] it looks like the open source wiki development community may have to play catch-up. Like TwikiClone it has some advanced 'application' features. Unlike twiki it all looks very friendly and easy to use. -- HarryWood

I've had a few run-ins with JotSpot since they started that have left me very confused with their intentions and generally unhappy with them.

They hijacked ScottMoonen's wiki's name [Jot] which was #1 for Google:jot+wiki at the time of their incorporation.
A strange headhunter on something like CraigsList that didn't know what a wiki was and cost mucho deniro on my cellphone. (ok, this was not exceptionally annoying.)
They threw me out of their beta because I worked at SocialText at the time, despite that I was completely upfront and open with them about why I was there. Knowing what's going on in the wiki space is what I do, after all. They could have been more polite about it, that's for sure.
They are buying AdWords? on Google of their competitors' trademarks (e.g. Google:socialtext, Google:atlassian, Google:xwiki). This is just plain anti-social, not to mention stupid (consider the IterativePrisonnersDilemma? or an ArmsRace? of escalating AdWords? auction prices).

In short, I'm quite disappointed at their reticence to interact with other wiki folks in a friendly, open, communitarian way. At WikiSym 2005, LudovicDubost? of Xwiki and I talked to JoeKraus? about this strange behaviour, and I don't think that went very well. Reflecting on the exchange, I realize that while we were talking about the wiki community, he was talking about the wiki market. I felt quite ill at ease to hear Joe talk about competition in a market sector defined by collaboration. Maybe one day their developers will say hello and join the conversation.

I write this here because it bothers me, and MeatballWiki is in part here to talk about what's happening in wikidom. JotSpot has spent a few million dollars to buy into the wiki space without actually having got around to saying hello. I suppose there will always be moneyed folk jumping on whatever cool is happening. Oh well, what can you do?

For those who came here for a discussion of their technology, JotSpot essentially is a CommunityProgrammableWiki using their own proprietary development stack (i.e. they built yet another TuringMachine? into the wiki). Their goal is to let non-programmers make small programs.

This technical approach is not yet proven. Interested researchers / experimenters / hackers may want to play with FlexWiki + ASP/.NET or JSPWiki + Exclipse or other such combinations, depending on their language and stack of choice. SwikiClone is already ahead on this front, but using a now passé language. Plus, since most non-programmers prefer Excel and to a (much) lesser extent Access, it would be fun to try building wikis around those kinds of workflows and metaphors as well. -- SunirShah

: For the record, no hard feelings on my part for the name, although if I were actively promoting my own engine then I might have been miffed. Joe told me that they'd encountered trademark difficulties with vanilla "Jot", so I imagine if I'd ever tried to capitalize on that I'd have had problems too. Also, I'm not the first to associate "jot" and "wiki", although the only prior instance I am aware of was vaporware that was later purged from SourceForge [1]. -- ScottMoonen

That explains why I was always confusing Jot and JotSpot. I had half assumed ScottMoonen had started a company or something (even though I think someone patiently explained this to me before).

Also, JotSpot is what I'd call an ExtensibleWiki? (see ExtensibleWikis), not a CommunityProgrammableWiki. A CommunityProgrammableWiki lets users edit the entire source code of the WikiEngine. An ExtensibleWiki? is a catch-all term for extensibility less radical than that. I hypothesize that a true CommunityProgrammableWiki with an active community would find itself much more radically revised than any "merely" ExtensibleWiki?-- BayleShanks

: Sunir, you say that we "could have been more polite" about "throwing you out". My email to you on the subject said: "Thanks for your message. I've always been an admirer of your work at Meatball. Although I'd love to show you what we're doing here at JotSpot, I'm afraid that the other hat you're wearing makes us a bit uncomfortable.... Despite our reluctance to open up our system to you, I don't believe we're in a zero-sum game. So I would enjoy meeting you for coffee to discuss what our respective companies are doing." I won't quote your reply without your permission, but it was also polite. Subsequent to our discussion, we accidentally provisioned an account for you, which we then retracted. We made a mistake in giving you the account after saying we wouldn't (blame our over-eager automation) but I don't think we were rude about it. Anyway, that was about a year ago; since then we have not made efforts to keep you or other competitors out of our system. -- GrahamSpencer

Graham, thank you for taking the time and consideration to reply. I've sent emails in to The Joe Kraus himself since then to check if I could open a new account, but received no response. I think it's reasonable to assume I was still "uninvited" (banned). -- SunirShah

: I can assure you that you are not banned. Please feel free to sign up if you haven't already. -- GrahamSpencer

CategoryWikiEngine