PBwiki

Infobox Company
company_name = PBwiki, Inc.
company_
slogan = Simple, Secure, Collaboration
vector_
company_type = Private
genre =
foundation = May 30, 2005
founder = David Weekly
location = San Mateo, California
key_people = David Weekly, Founder Jim Groff, CEOcite web|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/07/21/daily7.html|publisher=San Francisco Business Times|date=2008-07-21|accessdate=2008-10-09|title=PBwiki taps new CEO]
area_served =
industry =
products = A free/premium hosted wiki service
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 20
parent =
subsid =
owner =
homepage = [http://www.pbwiki.com PBwiki]
footnotes =

PeanutButterWiki or PBwiki is a commercial wiki farm started by three graduates of Stanford University: David Weekly, Ramit Sethi, and Nathan Schmidt. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/business/smallbusiness/05shift.html|title=Never Too Young to Give, or Take, Advice |last=Alboher|first=Marci|publisher=New York Times|date=2007-11-05|accessdate=2008-10-09] Based in San Mateo, California, the company's name stems from their belief that "making a wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich". [cite web|url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201805279&pgno=4&queryText=&isPrev=|title=Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Content Management Systems|publisher=InformationWeek|first=Peter|last=Hagopian|date=2007-09-10|accessdate=2008-10-09] The company operates on a freemium basis, with basic features being offered for free and more advanced features for a fee. [cite web|url=http://www.redherring.com/Home/pages/print/posts/?bid=55c28987-3340-4b59-b519-fe27a969f791&mode=Full|title=Q&A: On Widgets and Avatars (Interview with David Feinleib of Mohr Davidow Ventures)|last=Messinger|first=Leah|accessdate=2008-10-09|date=2007-06-19|publisher=Red Herring]

PBwiki's investors include Mohr Davidow Ventures [cite web|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003770628_techsocial02.html|title=Young software developers eat, drink beer, talk code|last=Wong|first=Nicole C.|date=2007-07-02|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=Seattle Times] and the Seraph Group, as well as angel investors Ron Conway and Chris Yeh. [cite web|publisher=TechCrunch|url=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/21/pbwiki-raises-2m/|title=PBWiki Raises 2m|date=2007-02-21|accessdate=2008-10-09|last=Kirkpatrick|first=Marshall]

In June 2008, Weekly stepped down as CEO, and the company hired Jim Groff, a former employee of Oracle Corporation and Apple Inc. to replace him.

History

In 2005, most wiki software was overly complex for a layman to set up and manage, requiring an extensive knowledge of Linux, and their own server. David Weekly came up with the idea of providing easy-to-use privately hosted Wikis through a website - which he named "PeanutButterWiki" - while co-hosting the first SuperHappyDevHouse hackathon event in May 2005. [cite web|url=http://meetinnovators.com/2008/06/19/david-weekly-from-pbwiki/|title=Interview with David Weekly from PBwiki|publisher=MeetInnovators.com|date=2008-06-19|accessdate=2008-10-09|last=Bye|first=Adrian] Together with some programmer friends, Weekly quickly coded the first implementation of PBwiki; the original beta test of PBwiki was released for public comment on 31 May 2005. [cite web|title=PBwiki forum post|publisher=PBwiki|url=http://forums.pbwiki.com/viewtopic.php?t=555|accessdate=2008-10-09]

The site was formally launched in June 2005, and within 48 hours, over 1000 wikis had been created. Today it contains around 500,000 wikis and millions of pages of user-created content.cite web|url=http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/web20/62991.html|title=Wikis: The Crown Jewels of Collaboration|last=Weekly|first=David|date=2008-05-14|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=ECommerce Times]

oftware and features

Hosted on an all-Linux cluster, built on Debian, PBwiki uses its own proprietary software and wiki syntax, both of which are under continuing development. It added WYSIWYG editing in early 2007, and semi-limited HTML source editing in 2008.

Users can create free basic wikis, or upgrade to a premium wiki to access additional features. Wikis can be "public" or "private" (only viewable by those who know the wiki password, or have been invited to join the wiki).

Premium wikis offer extra features, including enhanced security management with secure HTTP and multiple passwords, CSS support, the ability to hide some pages in an otherwise public wiki, more generous space allowances (up to 10 GB, with more available by quote), and custom domain names; free wikis have a 10 MB restriction, and only 3 CSS designs. Wikis can be made advertising-free by the administrator indicating the wiki is for education use.cite web|url=http://www.wikimatrix.org/show/PBwiki|title=PBwiki on Wikimatrix|date=2008-09-23|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=Wikimatrix] cite web|url=http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438167.html| last=Brisco|first=Shonda|title=Which wiki is right for you?|publisher=School Library Journal|date=2007-05-01|accessdate=2008-10-09]

Historically, PBwiki focused on being simpler and easier-to-use than software wikis, but the company has been adding functionality, and recently launched a beta test of PBwiki 2.0, an improved version with a new layout, more granular security, and a more easily customizable color scheme.

Usage

A number of business and corporations use PBwiki to create private wikis for employees; one case study from CNN described a legal firm which had transitioned to PBwiki as a document management system in order to cut their IT costs. [cite web|url=http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/11/smbusiness/wiki_software.fsb/?postversion=2008021211|title=Boosting teamwork with wikis|publisher=CNN Money|date=2008-02-12|last=Nussenbaum|first=Evelyn|accessdate=2008-10-09] Major companies to use PBwiki as a host for internal documents include CafePress.com, Capgemini, Deloitte, the Financial Times, Kiva, and Wideload Games. [cite web|url=http://pbwiki.com/content/casestudies-business|title=PBwiki case studies - business|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=PBwiki] Educational groups include the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin, and DePaul University. [cite web|url=http://pbwiki.com/content/casestudy-depaul|title=PBwiki case studies - education|accessdate=2008-10-09|publisher=PBwiki]

References

See also

* Comparison of wiki software

External links

* [http://pbwiki.com/ PBwiki] 's home page
* [http://blog.pbwiki.com/ PBwiki Blog]
* [http://getsatisfaction.com/pbwiki PBwiki Customer Center] , hosted at GetSatisfaction