PBwiki named "Best" online wiki by The Product Guy

Jeremy Horn of The Product Guy blog spent several weeks evaluating the various on-demand wikis available on the market.

After taking in depth looks at five different wikis, including Google Sites, he named PBwiki “The Best Free Online Wiki Experience.”

“The Best Free Online Wiki Experience is PBwiki for the reasons stated throughout this series, as well as having: (1) a firm grasp on the usability needs of a wiki user, (2) the most comprehensive feature set, and (3) providing outstanding support to its user base, not just in the form of addressing problems, but also in actively communicating status, product updates, and other helpful news via their product blog.”

Thanks Jeremy!

New feature: Allow users to request access to your wiki

Today, we’ve enabled a new feature on your wiki: Request Access allows users to request access to your wiki.

Who would use Request Access?
It’s perfect if you want to add users to your wiki, but don’t want to manage the process of figuring out their email address, adding them, and managing them. You’ll still be able to add users to your wiki, but Request Access allows your users to make your life easier. Request Access is one of our core steps to making our login system easier to use.

How Request Access works
1. Someone wants to access your wiki (maybe you suggested they contribute)
2. They go to your wiki and click “Log in”
3. They’ll see a login page. Since they don’t have access to your wiki, they click “Request Access” and fill out some basic information
4. You’re sent an email with simple instructions on allowing the user wiki access (or ignoring them)

Screenshots
This is what your users will see when they try to log in to your wiki:

If they don’t have a username/password, they’ll be able to click “Request access,” which will take them to a page where they can identify themselves to the wiki administrator(s):

As the wiki administrator, you’ll receive an email that will allow you to grant access (or ignore the request).

…and they’re added to your wiki! No more wondering if you got the email address right or giving complicated instructions to log in to your wiki. Once you grant access, PBwiki handles the signup process in the background and lets you manage users from Settings >> Users.

As one of our beta testers said:

I love it. Since I’ve got a private wiki that we keep adding people to, previously I had to go and enter everyone in. I was never sure if I entered the right email.

[Request Access] makes logging in easier. First off, I get an email notification, so I don’t just get a random email from someone. I can just click on the link and approve! Hooray!

I like request access better than entering folks in individually.

Turning Request Access off
If you don’t want to allow users to request access to your wiki, you can always disable this feature by clicking Settings >> Security.

We love feedback!
Thanks for using PBwiki, and if you have any feedback, we’d love to hear it.

New feature: Email notifications look better, work better

We’re happy to announce our improved notifications emails, which have new functionality and a brand-new visual design. We previewed these earlier, and today we’re launching these to all PBwiki 2.0 wikis. (Still on PBwiki 1.0? Click here to update your 2.0 wiki before everyone else.)

The new notifications include:

  • Comment notifications. Your email notifications now include any comments made on your wiki.
  • Better organized notifications. We’ve improved your email notifications so you’ll get a record of each change on your wiki in a more organized way.
  • A new look and feel. I know my mom told me to be modest, but I can’t help myself — they look awesome!

Feedback?
We love feedback! Please let us know what you think.

Growing in a Down Market with PBwiki (recording and transcript)

We had a great webinar this morning with Teo Mayes, the CTO of RMC Vanguard Mortgage, a rapidly growing mortgage company in Houston that has used PBwiki to improve both employee productivity and customer satisfaction.

Click the link below to watch a recording of the webinar:
http://www.archive.org/details/GrowingInADownMarketWithPbwiki

Or, if you’d prefer a quick summary, one of the webinar attendees put her own transcript of the proceedings on her blog:
http://christytucker.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/wikis-for-improving-productivity/

Our next big event will be a live webinar with Peter Williams, the CEO of Deloitte Digital.  This webinar will take place at 4 PM Pacific on Wednesday, June 25.  To find the exact time in your time zone, use the Time Zone Converter (PBwiki’s time zone is U.S.A. – California – San Francisco).  Click the link below to sign up:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/986201823 

Congratulations to our 500,000 wikis contest winners!

A hearty PBwiki congratulations goes out to the winners of our 500,000 wikis contest.  Each of these winners will be receiving a lifetime upgrade for their wiki that includes all of our premium features features like single sign-on, IP whitelisting, and PBwiki’s famous automated design customizer (just upload your logo, and let PBwiki redesign your wiki to match it).

The lucky winners are:

Samantha, a teacher in the Washington Township School District, created wiki number 499,999 (renaissanceleaders.pbworks.com).

Mara created wiki number 500,001, the DI (Differentiating Instruction) Resources Wiki, which you can visit at http://diresources.pbworks.com.  “This is a space for educators to gather, share, and reflect upon web-based resources for differentiating instruction.”

And finally, congratulations to Dr. Carl Binder of SixBoxes.com, who created wiki number 500,000 (sixboxes.pbworks.com).  “This wiki is a place to collect what we know and what we are learning about the Six Boxes Approach, and how we plan to learn and develop more.”

Congratulations again to our winners, and thanks to everyone who helped us reach the 500,000 wiki mark!

PBwiki helps University of Kansas & Tulane rebuild post-Katrina

Now this is one of those things that makes us feel good.

Architecture students from the University of Kansas and Tulane University are working together to help rebuild New Orleans’ 7th Ward.

One one year, the project, called “Rebuilding the Seventh” has already grown to encompass nearly 1,000 documents.

The professor leading the project, Nils Gore of Kansas, had this to say about PBwiki:

“It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it works.  When you’re looking for a tool to enhance collaboration, what more could you possibly want?”

Transition to a PBwiki 2.0

We know our users are excited about making the switch to PBwiki 2.0, and we’ve been working on a tool that will allow our users to update their existing wikis to PBwiki 2.0. This tool is now ready and we’re looking for interested users to sign up, make the switch to PBwiki 2.0, and tell us what you think.

If you’re interested in trying this out, please click here to apply. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Note: Please don’t forget to check your email for a confirmation link!

See PBwiki's Newest Features (Webinar 5/20, 10 AM Pacific)

We’ll be showing off some of the new features we’ve added to PBwiki in the past few months since the release of PBwiki 2.0.  These include:

  • Undo button
  • Remove formatting
  • Sortable tables
  • Footnotes
  • Improved lock stealing
  • AJAX tags
  • Notifications 2.0
  • Comment notifications

    • To sign up for the webinar, click the link below:
    https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/992520148

    PBwiki featured in New York Times blog

    Marci Alboher, the career columnist at the New York Times, wrote about PBwiki in her latest blog post.

    By now pretty much all of us (and even our parents) have used Wikipedia to look something up…But have you ever seen or used any other kind of wiki? If the answer is no, it may be about time to add wikis to the tools you use to work collaboratively with others.

    She points how PBwiki can be used to reduce the number of emails you receive and edit a New York Times bestseller.

    But the most interesting part is the comments, where people ask about the differences between PBwiki and other collaboration services.

    Read the article at the New York Times blog: More to Wikis Than Wikipedia

    Sign up before June 1 for a chance at a free lifetime wiki upgrade

    Birthday Cake

    (Photo courtesy of PinkCakeBox and Flickr.)

    PBwiki’s 3rd birthday is coming up on May 31, and to celebrate that happy day, as well as PBwiki hitting the 500,000 wiki mark, we’re giving away free lifetime upgrades to wikis 499,999, 500,000, and 500,001.  Click here for the full announcement.

    We’ll be announcing the three lucky winners on June 4.  They’ll be receiving lifetime upgrades with all the bells and whistles.  Tell your friends!

    UPDATE: Congratulations to our lucky winners!