You’ll be amazed by the capabilities of JotSpot, which takes the concept of Wikis to a whole new level. Wikis are web pages that can be edited by anyone, so people can collaborate and add input to them while keeping track of each change, thus ending up with a page that was created by everyone and contains the sum of all their knowledge and expertise.

Traditional Wikis (the most famous example of course is www.wikipedia.org) are a bit difficult for the average computer user to create and maintain. JotSpot aims to revolutionize the way people use the Wiki concept by providing dozens of readymade applications and a powerful WYSIWYG editor.

Redefining Collaboration

Creating an account will assign the URL yourname.jot.com to your Wiki. You’ll be prompted to create an ‘admin’ user account as soon as you sign up, after which you’re taken to your blank homepage. It’s quite simple to add more users later, but you can only add one at a time. JotSpot lets you set varying level of permission for activities such as viewing pages, creating new pages, editing or deleting pages and adding attachments. You choose whether yourself, all registered users or the general public are allowed to do anything.

First off, you’ll see a blank homepage. Click the big orange “edit page” button and choose between the WYSIWYG, Wiki markup and XML editors. While the latter two give great flexibility and control to those who know how to use them, the vast majority of users will opt for the first choice straightaway.

The WYSIWYG editor here is similar to the rich text editors used by many email and blog sites, and is quite well executed. Users will immediately see the toolbar layout similar to Microsoft Word, and all the important formatting controls are right there. You can even highlight text and click one of the buttons to apply styles such as bold, italic, underline, right/left/center/justified alignment, bullets, numbering and indents. There are buttons for text color, background color, adding links and inserting images. You can even add tables just like in a word processor. Add or delete rows or columns, split and merge cells, etc. It’s all there. The only time you’ll need a little knowledge of HTML is when you need to add links to the other pages you create.

When you’re done editing, you’ll notice two boxes on the bottom of the page. The first one is for comments, where any of your users can type a note or message for everyone else to see. Comments can even be emailed in using an individual address and secret code for each page that you’ll find there. The second box allows you to upload attachments for everyone else to see. This way, you can share documents, presentations and work reports securely online.

To Boldly Go Where No Wiki Has Gone Before

But just creating and linking simple pages together is only one aspect of JotSpot. One of the coolest things about it is the gallery of prefabricated, ready-to-use “applications” that you can add to your Wiki. That’s right; you can install web applications, not just static web pages. The list of available applications includes a blogging tool that lets you post your thoughts and read or comment on others’ posts and a forum where you can create new threads and reply to existing ones. There’s a group calendar to let you schedule events and view upcoming appointments, a poll module to help you collect user input using multiple choice questions, and even a bug tracker database application complete with color coding, querying, summarization, graphing and charting functions!

There’s the Package Manager, where über geek coders can install their own applications and integrate them with their JotSpot pages, but we mortals can also try out the Plugin manager. Plugins are quick and simple ways to enhance the functionality of your Wiki using simple Javascript. Plugins can range from a simple extra link on each page, to adding entirely new functionality such as keyboard shortcuts or email notification.

Email is deeply integrated into JotSpot. Not only can users post content to pages via email, but individual pages or links to pages can also be emailed to anyone directly from the web. In addition, RSS is used to broadcast feeds every time there anyone makes a change to any page. If you’re using the blogging application, you’ll find even more uses of RSS and Atom feeds. And, last but not least, you can upload Word and Excel documents directly to your Wiki.

JotSpot regularly publishes tips and tricks via email and conducts online “webinars”, online seminars designed to help you get the most out of your account. New content such as applications are constantly under development, so not only is already one of the most powerful ways to work with colleagues without worrying about physical distances, there’s lots to look forward to as this service matures and becomes more popular.