We’re still refining this release so the features work perfectly, but you can start using them with your network now. Here’s how network admins can turn on real-time collaboration:

• Go to Network Settings
• Chose ‘Real Time’
• Activate!

This is a beta release which means there may be some unexpected behavior. If you see something that doesn’t work exactly as it should, please send feedback! We even have a feedback link built into your IM chat.

Read more about how to use the Real Time Collaboration features in our user manual.

Fast forward to 1:44 to see the new real-time collaboration features in action or watch the entire video to catch up on features you may have missed.

Modern browsers are faster, more secure, and much more helpful. We understand there are a number of you who are still forced to use ancient, dangerous, and painfully buggy browsers such as IE6, but overall the adoption of new browsers has been surprisingly quick.

(Note: We are still supporting IE6, since many corporate IT departments mandate it, but if you have a choice to upgrade to IE8 or another modern browser, we *strongly* recommend that you exercise that choice!)

PBworks is excited about the possibilities that modern browsers allow for and want all of our users to share in those benefits. Upgrade your browser today:

Google Chrome
Firefox 3.5
Internet Explorer 8

Ian Danforth
Gentleman of Quality

Analyzing Test Results
As the data analyst here, an A/B test for me can be reduced to just a few simple numbers.  Those would be: (1) the difference in conversion rate from the control group and (2) the level of confidence we have in that difference.  The first number is easy to calculate and explain to the rest of the team, e.g. “The test site resulted in 30% more sign ups that the current site.”  Everyone gets that: engineers, marketers, and managers.  As an example, here is how one of our recent website experiments played out over a 2 week period:

In the chart, each day shows the cumulative conversion rate (i.e. total sign ups since the beginning of the test divided by the total visitors since the beginning) for the test site (Test) and the current site (Control).  Notice how well the test site is outperforming the current site.

However, anyone who’s played games of chance can tell you numbers that look good on this turn, may not be so hot on the next.  For example, if you flip a quarter 5 times and it came up heads 4 times, would you feel confident on betting that the coin is biased towards heads?   What if you flipped 80 heads out of 100 tosses?  At this point, you’d be much more confident that the coin is biases towards heads.  In our A/B test, we measure the conversion rate for a small subset of all visitors, let’s say 10,000 visitors with 100 sign ups.  Do we believe that the this conversion rate will be the same for the millions of visitors we expect in the months to come?  Do we need to test 1,000,000 visitors to be confident that the observed increase will apply to all visitors and was not just the luck of the draw?

Statistical Confidence
Statistician have figured out a way to calculate a numerical representation for the confidence that the population (i.e. the millions of visitors our site will see in the future) will show an increased conversion if the sample (i.e. the thousands of visitors that have hit the test site so far) shows an increase.  Though we have this reliable, albeit complex, formula for the confidence number (using a 2-proportion z-test, or an online calculator), explaining what this number means to the rest of my team hasn’t always been easy.  How would you interpret: “We saw a 30% increase in sign ups and we’re only 90% confident there is an increase.”  What this means is that if we ran this test 100 times, we’d expect in 90 cases to see an increase (though not necessarily a 30% increase) and in the other 10 cases to see a decrease or no change.  For some organizations, this would be enough confidence to make the test site the actual site for everyone, for others, it wouldn’t.  The decision of what confidence level to use comes down to a trade off of speed and certainty.

Unlike coin flipping, though, recreating the experiment over and over again would take too long and negate most of the gains we expect from A/B testing.  So it is difficult for some to internalize what this confidence level represents.  Many people, especially those that are risk-averse, don’t like dealing with probabilities and will keep asking for more data.  But you’ll never be 100% certain that the test site is better converting than the current site.  So at some point you need to stop collecting data and make a decision.

Sunrise Charts
What I’ve found to be a useful aid in getting many of the risk-averse types to accept some risk has been to overlay confidence areas in the time series chart like so:

My team has dubbed this a “Sunrise Chart” (yeah, I’ve never seen a green sky during a sunrise either, but you get the picture).  The solid black line and dashed blue line are the same as in the previous chart and the colored bands represent confidence levels.  If the test line veers into the green area we have a 90% level of confidence that the test site out-converts the current site.

Many of the less technically-inclined members of my team find that this chart makes sense on a more intuitive level than a statement like: “We saw a 30% increase in sign ups and we’re 90% confident there is an increase.”  The chart shows this same information, but it also shows two other things.  First, the random day-to-day fluctuations in conversion rate average out and the rates stabilize over time.  When people see more stable conversion rates, they are more inclined to feel confident in the difference they see.  Second, this chart shows that as we collect more data over time, a smaller and smaller increase is needed to reach a specific confidence level.  This is essentially the same piece of information as seeing the conversion rates stabilize, but since these confidence bands are generated from a complex mathematical formula, it gives some peace of mind that the underlying math is jibes with their gut.

Conclusions
To wrap things up, at PBworks we believe that A/B testing is an important tool to develop the most relevant software for our customers.  However, when experimenting, it is not enough to simply compare the conversion rates of the test site with the current site.  We want some level of certainty that if we do see an increase, it is not simply due to a lucky draw.   That is where confidence levels come into play.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s not enough for just the technically inclined to “get it” with a statistical analysis of the results.  Rather the whole team needs to be on board with the decisions that result from the experiment, so everyone needs to be comfortable with the analysis.  This is when Sunrise Charts can be a valuable aid.

In light of this news, PBworks will no longer offer the BubbleShare plugin. On November 15, all BubbleShare slideshow photos embeded on PBworks will no longer display the associated images.

This only applies to photos that were embedded with the BubbleShare slideshow — all other images that have been uploaded or embedded on your workspace will not be affected.

We’re sad to see BubbleShare close their virtual doors and wish them the best of luck.

For those of you who want a slideshow on your workspace, check out Slide.com or one of the dozens of plugins listed on our plugin resource page.

Not sure where to begin? Check out this short video on how to make a slideshow using Slide.com.

No problem! Our latest feature, called Full Screen Edit, allows you to expand your edit box to the full width and height of your screen. With full screen edit you only see the toolbar and save button, all other page elements are hidden from view.

To enter fill screen edit mode, click the ‘flower’ button on your toolbar. Click once again to return to normal editing.

What do you think of full screen edit? Tell us in the comments!

McTeach: Love the new addition on PBWorks! You can now switch to fullscreen mode when editing a page! Very handy!!

Check out the responses:

“I want to learn as much as I can about the “free” tools available to educators. This weeks resources page is amazing! I’ve heard and used some of the tools but will make use of many more by they end of the camp. This is awesome!”

“Thank you for all the tools and information you are providing. It is a tremendous help and is saving me a plethora of hours trying to find Internet tools to use in the classroom. I so appreciate what you’re doing.” -p.c.ames

This year we’re hosting the second annual PBworks Summer Camp where educators can learn the best way to structure your classroom site, engage your students with audio and video and connect with experienced wiki mentors.

At the end of the summer, Campers who have followed the program receive a premium upgrade.

PBworks Summer Camp is now closed, pre-register for next year and guarantee a spot!

But we’re not the only ones who offer courses and consulting.  Stewart Mader of Future Changes has a thriving business in holding custom workshops for everyone from Fortune 500 companies to schools.

Another provider, Blue Oxen Associates, holds regular virtual courses as well.  Their upcoming course (May 19 – June 9) features Socialtext co-founder Peter Kaminski, who will be conducting a series of four teleconference workshops for a small group of 5 registrants.

If you’re interested, Blue Oxen is offering PBworks users a special deal–$50 off registration if you use the discount code “pbworks”.  Registration closes Thursday at 5 PM Pacific.

Whatever resources you turn to, whether from us or other parties, the important thing is to seek out the help you need. The best collaboration tool is not the one with the most features; it’s the one that your team uses!

Hundreds of food related suggestions:

• Corndog- Because using our site is as good as meat on a stick.
• BLT – a bit more sophisticated, but still easy!
• Dagwood- your wiki offers it all
• SteakandPotatoes.com (The new “beefed-up” version)
• OrderOut – even easier than make a PB&J, and tastier to boot!

Several business focused suggestions:

• AdeptShare – because PBWiki makes anyone adept at sharing data
• SynergyPlus
• Infoshare (easy as pie–)
• GroupShare

Suggestions that made us laugh

• If you develop a collaborative motion control interface, you could call it Wiikii.
• The company formerly know as PBwiki
• Easier Than Falling Off A Log Wiki

And, because it’s the internet, we had two votes for ColbertWiki.

]]> http://blog.pbworks.com/2009/04/29/you-think-our-name-should-be/feed/ 1 http://blog.pbworks.com/2009/04/21/official-announcement-were-changing-our-name/ http://blog.pbworks.com/2009/04/21/official-announcement-were-changing-our-name/#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:58:50 +0000 kristine http://blog.pbwiki.com/?p=958 When PBwiki launched in 2005, our founder David was excited to build a fast and easy way to create a wiki. He even named the company PBwiki – because starting your own wiki was ‘as easy as making a Peanut Butter sandwich’.

In fact, it’s still easy to use our product, and you can definitely create your own workspace in less time than it takes to make the proverbial PB&J…especially if you have to dig around in the pantry to find the peanut butter.

We spent much of the next few years answering questions like, “What’s a wiki?” and “How can I use one in my school or organization?” But over the past year, we’ve noticed a change. These days, we get far fewer questions about how to use a wiki, and a more questions about specific ways that our collaboration tools can meet specific needs.

We’ve spent so much time talking with users and building features that people asked for -Access Controls, Document Management, Mobile Edition- that it’s become increasingly difficult to claim that we’re just a wiki company.

In fact when we asked our users how they use PBwiki, here’s what they say:

“[PBwiki] proved to be a key resource for our support staff…we centralized the vast organizational knowledge around the implementation in a single place.” – RBC

“We use PBwiki to manage workflow.” – Top Fortune 100 business user

“I use my PBwiki as a better alternative to a course management system” -edwebb

We’ve gone far beyond the traditional concept of wiki functionality, and as a result, the name “PBwiki” doesn’t reflect how we think of ourself – or how our users think of us.

Next month we have some big changes that we will be announcing, and one of them is a new name and logo. Yes folks, the peanut butter sandwich is going into retirement.

Your workspace will remain exactly the same – with the same features and login information. And we will always be an easy-to-use solution that you can depend on, with great free products. But we hope you’re excited about all the additional things we’ll be bringing you.

For more information about about what changes you’ll be seeing, check out our PBwiki FAQ.

Before we say good bye to our Peanut Butter Sandwich, we want to have some fun. Guess our new name, and we’ll send you a soon-to-be vintage PBwiki t-shirt. In fact, you don’t even have to guess correctly! We’ll also give out PBwiki t-shirts to the most creative and interesting suggestions.

Take your best guess here!

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