PBworks

PBworks (formerly PBwiki[2]) is a commercial real-time collaborative editing (RTCE) system created by David Weekly, with Ramit Sethi and Nathan Schmidt, who joined shortly thereafter as co-founders. Based in San Mateo, California,[1] United States, the company operates on a freemium basis, offering basic features free of charge and more advanced features for a fee.[3]

PBworks
Private
FoundedMay 30, 2005
HeadquartersSan Mateo, California, U.S.
Key people
David Weekly, Founder
Jim Groff, CEO[1]
ProductsA free/premium hosted workspace service which allows collaborative editing of pages and files
Number of employees
30
Websitepbworks.com

PBworks' investors include Mohr Davidow Ventures[4] and the Seraph Group, as well as angel investors Ron Conway and Chris Yeh.[5]

History

In 2005, David Weekly began developing software to build privately hosted wikis through a website, which he named "PeanutButterWiki"[6] The company's original name stems from the concept that "making a wiki is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich".[7] The original beta test of PBworks was released for public comment on 31 May 2005.[8]

The site was formally launched in June 2005. In early 2008, the company launched PBworks 2.0, an improved version with a new layout, more granular security, and a more easily customizable color scheme. PBworks also launched a Mobile Edition in early 2009.

In June 2008, the company hired Jim Groff, a former employee of Oracle Corporation and Apple Inc., for its new CEO. David Weekly, the former CEO, remains its Chief Product Officer and Chairman.[1]

Today PBworks contains over 6.91 million pages of user content.[9]

In 2014, the team behind PBworks began development of its next-generation product, Dokkio.[10]

Software

PBworks is hosted on an all-Linux cluster[9] and uses its own proprietary software. In early 2007, it added WYSIWYG editing, and in 2008, limited HTML source editing. Since 2009, the wiki is entirely HTML based, and original wiki markup language is no longer supported.[11]

Users can create free basic wiki workspaces or upgrade to a premium plan to access additional features, such as enhanced security features, customization through CSS, and more storage space. Workspaces can be configured as either public or private (only viewable by those who have been invited to join the workspace).

The software is only available in English.

Usage

A number of businesses and corporations use PBworks to create private wikis for employees; one case study described a legal firm which had transitioned to PBworks as a document management system in order to cut their IT costs.[12] Major companies using PBworks to host internal documents include CafePress.com, Capgemini, Deloitte, Financial Times, Kiva, and Wideload Games.[13] Many educational groups and educators use PBworks, too, including DePaul University, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the University of Toronto, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and Wayne State University.

Name change

On April 28, 2009, PBwiki changed its name to PBworks (and at the same time launched a new Legal Edition).[2]

gollark: * loans, not lones, wow my typing is slightly inaccurate today.
gollark: * limits
gollark: And hopefully limit the scope somewhat.
gollark: Which does give it better incentives to actually align with reality than an alternative might.
gollark: I mean, you could argue that credit scoring is already a weird private-sector social credit system but more about whether you can pay back loans.

See also

References
  1. "PBwiki taps new CEO". San Francisco Business Times. July 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  2. "PBwiki Changes Name to PBworks". PRnewswire. Archived from the original on 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2009-04-28.
  3. Messinger, Leah (June 19, 2007). "Q&A: On Widgets and Avatars (Interview with David Feinleib of Mohr Davidow Ventures)". Red Herring. Archived from the original on October 20, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  4. Wong, Nicole C. (July 2, 2007). "Young software developers eat, drink beer, talk code". Seattle Times. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  5. Kirkpatrick, Marshall (February 21, 2007). "PBWiki Raises 2m". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  6. Bye, Adrian (June 19, 2008). "Interview with David Weekly from PBwiki". MeetInnovators.com. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  7. Hagopian, Peter (September 10, 2007). "Everything You Need To Know To Get Started With Content Management Systems". InformationWeek. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  8. "PBwiki forum post". PBwiki. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  9. Weekly, David (May 14, 2008). "Wikis: The Crown Jewels Collaboration". ECommerce Times. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  10. "ABOUT US". www.pbworks.com. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  11. "PBwiki Drops The Wiki, Becomes PBworks (comment from PBwiki's VP)". TechCrunch. April 28, 2009. Retrieved 2010-09-29.
  12. Nussenbaum, Evelyn (February 12, 2008). "Boosting teamwork with wikis". CNN Money. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  13. "PBwiki case studies - business". PBwiki. Archived from the original on 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
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