Socialtext Unveils SocialCalc, the First Social Spreadsheet

Socialtext’s Dan Bricklin Pours 30 Years of Experience Into Creating the Distributed Spreadsheet

June 10, 2008

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Socialtext, the leading provider of enterprise wiki and social software solutions, today announced SocialCalc, a multi-user wiki-based spreadsheet program that simplifies version control, reduces errors and increases productivity. On the heels of its recent announcements — Socialtext Dashboard and Socialtext People and its four new solutions areas — the SocialCalc announcement underscores the company’s vision as the innovator and leader in business social software.

In 1979, tech entrepreneur and Boston visionary, Dan Bricklin, created and debuted the first spreadsheet program (VisiCalc) and thirty years later Bricklin has created the distributed spreadsheet — SocialCalc. Unlike other web-based spreadsheets that emulate Excel on a page, SocialCalc allows for collaboration amongst groups to work on multiple worksheets and within multiple pages. Through integrated linking and annotation, spreadsheets are more self-explanatory, accelerating understanding and improving productivity and thus reducing mistakes due to version control.

"Traditionally, wikis have centered on paragraphs of text and have proven invaluable for dealing with information in that form," said Dan Bricklin, Socialtext Product Lead for SocialCalc. "I am thrilled at how we have been able to bring spreadsheet editing into the wiki environment. Business people get the familiar layout, formatting, and calculation functionality of a spreadsheet together with the organic multi-page building and sharing functionality of a wiki. The spreadsheet metaphor has proven to be one of the most popular ways to organize, analyze, and store a vast range of types of information. With the addition of SocialCalc, Socialtext now has an even more powerful tool to let groups develop and keep track of their important data and ideas."

• SocialCalc – through its integrated discussions and current version control the program prohibits errors from centralized aggregation changes because the user always has the correct and current content accessible. Compared to a traditional spreadsheet sent via email, a sheet on a shared drive or document management system, this program can break work into workable increments and provide a closer to synchronous serial process. Individuals can work on their own section(s) and have a roll-up dashboard, an audit trail of changes and simple notification updates.

"SocialCalc is the next room in the business social software house we are building on our enterprise wiki foundation," remarks Socialtext CEO Eugene Lee. “This announcement is exciting because that the social spreadsheet effortlessly bridges the generations of the existing workforce and the upcoming workforce and does not require that individuals need to re-learn an existing application.”

"The timing of SocialCalc is perfect — we were in need of a wikified spreadsheet that had all of the utility of Google Docs without the datamining," remarks Brandon Stafford, Principal Engineer at GreenMountain Engineering. "The SocialCalc interface is easy for anyone who knows spreadsheets. The automatic revision tracking eliminates the emailing of spreadsheets. That kind of simplification is crucial for our engineering consulting business."

The SocialCalc spreadsheet engine is also a project on the One Laptop per Child Program, a non-profit directive to empower children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected lap to every school-age child. SocialCalc is currently in private Beta with Socialtext customers and will be commercially available within 90 days. To learn about the Beta program or get a demonstration, contact Socialtext sales. Further information is available on the press wiki http://socialtext.net/st-press/

About Socialtext

As the first wiki company, Socialtext leads the industry in applying next generation Web 2.0 technologies to the critical challenges facing businesses. Web 2.0 holds the promise of dramatically increasing business productivity, stimulating greater innovation, and creating tighter connections between employees, and with partners, suppliers and customers. With the most flexible deployment options in the industry including appliances, hosted services, software and open source – Socialtext wiki centric social software solutions are designed for any organization that wants to accelerate team communications, better enable knowledge sharing, foster collaboration, and build online communities. Today, over 4,000 organizations use Socialtext, including BASF, CondeNet, Epitaph Records, Humana, IKEA, Intel, MicroStrategy, MWW Group, Nokia, Ogilvy PR, SAP, Symantec, USA Today, Washington Post, among others. More information on Socialtext can be found at www.socialtext.com.

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© 2012 Socialtext, Inc. All rights reserved.

As the Enterprise 2.0 leader, Socialtext applies Web 2.0 technologies such as enterprise microblogging, enterprise social networking and wikis to the critical challenges facing businesses. Socialtext's enterprise collaboration platform allows employees to share expertise, speed workflows and get their jobs done faster. Read our latest news highlights, press releases, coverage & awards, and recent and upcoming events.