Socialtext Unveils Free Enterprise 2.0 Offering Aimed at Mainstream Use; Social Spreadsheet Enters Public Beta

By Ross Mayfield | June 23, 2009, 4:24 am | 0 Comments

New Offering from Socialtext Encourages Adoption of Collaboration Networks by Companies; Availability of SocialCalc Announced

PALO ALTO, Calif., June 23 /PRNewswire/ — Socialtext, the leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions, today announced the availability of Socialtext Free 50, a new free offering aimed at mainstream use for up to 50 people within an organization to collaborate using Socialtext’s social software platform. Employees can join or create their own private collaboration networks by using their work email address at Socialtext.com. In addition to the new free offering, the company announced the immediate availability of SocialCalc, the first social spreadsheet program that simplifies version control, reduces errors and increases productivity for distributed teams.

Socialtext Free 50 provides online collaboration with Twitter-style micro-blogging, social networking, personalized dashboards, weblog publishing and a wiki workspace. Built on Adobe(R) AIR(TM) technology, the dynamic desktop application includes “drag-n-drop” file sharing across the enterprise. The organization’s IT department can control of the private network’s content and participation in Free 50 at no charge, and the free service is governed by IT friendly policies. Socialtext Free 50 also offers the ability to seamlessly upgrade to Socialtext Hosted and secure Onsite Appliance deployment options for the Socialtext Platform.

This announcement comes on the 30-year-anniversary of VisiCalc, the pioneering spreadsheet program by SocialCalc Product Lead Dan Bricklin; VisiCalc’s co-creator and author of the newly released book “Bricklin on Technology”. Now in public beta, SocialCalc is available to Socialtext Hosted and Appliance customers without charge.

“Many of our customers take a practical approach of workgroup use, before widespread transformative deployments,” said Eugene Lee, CEO of Socialtext. “These new offerings enable more businesses to discover a new way of working without barriers and decide when to engage with us to grow revenue, strengthen customer relationships and adapt to change. Socialtext continues to exercise its Enterprise 2.0 leadership with a ‘freemium’ SaaS business model, while expanding the power of its social software platform.”

Socialtext also expanded capabilities within Socialtext Signals, the Twitter-style micro-blogging application that asks users, “What are you working on?” A new full screen interface, private messages and integrated user experience across the Socialtext Platform increases employee engagement, connections and awareness.

Socialtext will be present at booth #609 at Enterprise 2.0 Boston, June 22 – 25, 2009.

About Socialtext

As the Enterprise 2.0 leader, Socialtext applies Web 2.0 technologies to the critical challenges facing businesses. Enterprise 2.0 enables the collective intelligence of many, which provides a competitive advantage by increasing innovation, corporate agility, strengthening customer relationships and growing revenue. Socialtext provides hosted and appliance-based solutions to more than 5,000 customers world-wide, including Acumen Fund, BASF, Boston College, Davies Public Affairs, Egon Zehnder, Emergent Solutions, Epitaph Records, The Hospital for Sick Children, IKEA, Intel, MicroStrategy, ‘mktg’, OSIsoft, SAP, Sungard and Symantec.

People are the Platform. Socialtext Workspace, is the first enterprise wiki and includes robust capabilities such as collaborative weblogs. Socialtext Signals provides private Twitter-style microblogging. Socialtext People enables enterprise social networking. Socialtext Dashboard provides personalized and customizable widget-based interface for people and teams to manage attention. SocialCalc is the social spreadsheet for distributed teams. Socialtext Desktop brings it all together in a dynamic desktop application. Learn more about Socialtext at www.socialtext.com.