Wikispaces

Wikispaces is a very simple application for publishing and sharing basic information. Wikispaces was setup as an online collaboration tool, which allows multiple users to interact and work together. The Wikispace idea uses a similar user interface as Wikipedia, where users can create a document, edit it, and hold discussions about the documents or any edits that have taken place. You can create a document, or space, for editing, like Wikipedia, you can let anybody view and edit it. You can also choose to restrict the editing process only to people who you already know, by inviting only trusted users and setting up a password. For an extra fee, you can even restrict the viewing of your space. Like Wikipedia, a history of document changes is kept, and a log is made of which user made which changes and at what time, so that collaborating authors can keep track of the work being done. While the power of the basic collaboration tools is not what you'd expect if you are used to a typical word processing suite, it is a Wikispaces is a useful application where multiple users across the globe can collaborate on simple documents or ideas. Wikispaces competes with other basic online notepad-type applications, such as Writeboard. Since the functionality of these apps is so basic, it's difficult to discern any noticeable difference between them. Any preference between the two would come down to personal choice. Wikispaces sports a very basic look and feel that, while not very impressive, is easy to understand and not very distracting. They also stick to basic Google Ads, so there are no flashing banners and annoying animations to distract you as far as advertising goes. You can also customize your own Wikispace with colors of your own choice and even add your own logo, to add a community or company feel to your collaboration work. The registration process is simple, requiring you only to specify a username, password and e-mail. No e-mail verification is required to get started and no other private information is asked for. A nice touch sees your username double as the URL, i.e. username.wikispaces.com. This makes it easier for you to communicate your Wikispace with other users. The basic Wikispaces service is free and funded by advertising, although there is a paid version as well that allows you to more fully customize your look and feel, while also offering you more user restriction options. The paid service is also advertising free and comes with more storage space. There are different levels of premium service, but the cheapest one starts at $5/month. If you are looking for a very basic, easy to understand collaboration tool, then Wikispaces is definitely worth checking out.