Ok, I can’t control myself any more.

Today, we’re officially announcing voice chat in PBwiki. This means that you can now talk to anyone viewing your wiki page. It takes about 15 seconds to set up on your PBwiki — and it’s free.

The details: We teamed with YackPack to embed their WalkieTalkie Widget that lets you chat on any PBwiki page. To get it, just edit any PBwiki page, click Insert Plugin >> Chat >> YackPack voice chat.

Click To Play

(To use this video on your site, just visit http://blip.tv/file/196824.)

Imagine using voice chat to let students talk about research they’re doing. Or to talk about whether a certain paragraph should be in your business proposal. Or to pick the perfect place for dinner from a list on your PBwiki. It’s available now on your wiki, free.

A PBwiki Press Conference — April 12th
We’re holding a press conference (using the voice chat, of course) tomorrow, April 12th, at http://press.pbwiki.com.

• 2pm PT: For technology journalists and other tech folks

• 6pm PT: For educators, educational journalists, and anyone who likes to read books and learn!

From the entire team at PBwiki and YackPack, enjoy voice chat on your wiki!

PS–To post about this on your own blog, visit our Media Resources page for videos, screenshots, and more

Ocassionally, our pages mess up because of a PBwiki bug. If that’s the case, then of course you should let somebody at support@pbwiki.com know and they’ll help you get things back to normal. However, a lot of cases are our own doing, and it is sometimes frustrating to see our pages look like a wreck for a few hours while we wait for support’s answer, no matter how prompt it might be.

Below, I’m going to show you a few tips you can use to take your wiki into your own hands when a boo-boo comes along. Support is of course always available either officially through support@pbwiki.com or by users like you through the forums, but a couple steps towards independence can be a welcome skill for any user.

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Are you trying to view our PBwiki videos but your work or school is blocking YouTube?

Don’t worry, we’ve uploaded all of the PBwiki videos to TeacherTube. TeacherTube is a great video site that doesn’t appear to be blocked by most employers and educational institutions. It’s completely safe for work and has other helpful videos and tutorials for both educators and students.

Take a look at the PBwiki videos on TeacherTube.

Here’s a PBwiki video uploaded on TeacherTube that has educators covering their favorite features on PBwiki.

Author’s Note: Wordpress garbled my code at the bottom of this page for the auto-generated index. It’s fixed now (April 5, 2007).

Celebrating National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day really gave me a moment to pause and reflect on the core concepts of PBwiki. Like a PBJ sandwich, PBwiki is about solid, satisfying simplicity, and sometimes, I think I forget that, looking for the filet mignon of the wiki world. Sure, it’s natural: I was originally brought on to the crew as a “Javascript Hacker.” I spend my free time doing silly things like making Tetris run in my wiki (programmed from scratch, FYI). Sometimes, the basic wiki stuff just gets lost on me.

To refocus, I’ve decided that about every other TOTW entry will be aimed primarily at hitting some foundational aspect of the PBwiki concept, which will be useful for our newer users and maybe a few veterans as well. Today, I’m gonna begin with ideas for navigating and finding pages in your wiki...

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No, it’s not a joke.

We’re all in the office salivating at http://www.seriouseats.com/ (seriously, check out the photos and videos). Some stats from their page:

• It takes roughly 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.
• Peanut butter is consumed in about 89 percent of US households.
• The world’s largest peanut butter factory – Jif, in Lexington, Ky. – churns out 250,000 jars of the tasty treat every day.

PBwiki: Where we take peanut butter seriously.