With Google gearing up to re-release JotSpot as Google Wiki, you may be wondering what else is happening in the collaborative editing camp. Along with a healthy dose of hype from the Google camp, a non-response from Wiki Media and a general holding pattern from the rest of the smaller Wiki brands, MindTouch (the creators of Deki Wiki) seem to be bringing the fight to Google’s door step with their newest feature release.

A Comparison

Both JotSpot (Google Wiki) and Deki Wiki are operating in the same space — enterprise level, expandable, collaborative editing products. This new feature release seems to be an effort for the folks over at MindTouch to get one step ahead of Mountain View, and from my initial peek at the new features, it looks like they have a shot.

JotSpot’s current implementation allows you to send emails, embed spreadsheets and several other features that are becoming more necessary for any company that wishes to have a comprehensive Wiki solution. Deki Wiki is taking this further and moving towards fully integrating a laundry list of web services into their platform. Their most recent additions include,

• Microsoft Live mash-ups with Virtual Earth and Live Contacts
• Google mash-ups with Maps, Blogs, News, and Videos
• Flickr real-time slideshows and badges
• ThinkFree viewer for Microsoft Office documents
• Dynamic HTML elements and manipulations
• Digg News and promotional “Digg It” badges
• Yahoo! Finance stock tracker and charts
• Gabbly for real-time online chat with other wiki users

They also are offering security through LDAP and tracking through Google Analytics. Will this be overkill for most users? Maybe, but the real power of Deki Wiki is that it allows savvy developers a flexible platform for deploying products that would be difficult to put together with most other Wiki solutions.

Where Google Wiki might shine is simplicity. Mountain View seems to have perfected the art of integrating third party products into easy to use, “Googleized” versions. Many corporate users need little more than a collaborative whiteboard, and if Google Wiki can fill this need it will be very attractive to small companies looking for a plug and play solution.

Web 2.0 Roundup

If anything, these two releases seem primed to segment the market along a fracture line with companies looking for a “quick fix” using Google Wiki much as they might use Google Docs, and those business’ with very specific Wiki needs installing Deki Wiki for their comprehensive web service support.

This seems good for everyone involved in the collaborative editing space. We haven’t heard much coming out of Wiki’s since the market was saturated sometime last year, maybe it’s time a few companies started bringing this great technology back into the collective conscious.

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