PikiWiki, which opened to the public yesterday, is no ordinary wiki. Instead of collaborating with others to edit text-dominated pages, people can use PikiWiki to easily share media with one another in a scrapbook-like environment.
The coolest thing about PikiWiki is how well the company has pulled off its drag and drop interface. After you sign up for a free account and create a blank page, you can drag any file from your desktop environment straight into the browser (on Windows and soon on Mac OSX). The file will be loaded and formatted appropriately by PikiWiki automatically. For example, photos will be displayed in a reduced size and placed where you dropped them. Generic files will be represented by links. All loaded files will be uploaded to PikiWiki’s servers once the page is saved.
In addition to loading files onto a PikiWiki page, you can embellish the page with various color themes and text blurbs. You can also record audio and video right into the page. The company plans to increase PikiWiki’s feature set, so expect to see a greater range of themes and widgets available in the future.
Once you have created a page, you can share it with a group of other PikiWiki users (such as friends or family members). You can opt to allow other group members to edit your pages, or you can simply share the pages as read-only. Pages can also be organized into “scrapbooks” within particular groups. This structure lends itself well to creating a group for each family that wants to create separate scrapbooks for its reunions.
Currently, PikiWiki is entirely free and without any storage constraints. However, the company has plans to monetize the service by charging for storage beyond a certain limit. They also anticipate providing a service in which users can order their scrapbooks as physical objects. Other potential sources of revenue include providing branded accessories for decorating one’s pages.
PikiWiki is a Santa Clara-based company with five employees. They have been working on this product for about a year and a half without any outside funding. It’s great to see them designing a service that appeals to techies and non-techies alike.
Click on the screenshot to visit a sample PikiWiki page (with editing disabled).
“branded accessories for decorating one’s pages” Anything specific on this?
sweet name!
PikiWiki sounds too ootsey cutesy – blah
Another creative invention on display for the net users to join. I’m pretty sure it will make another big impact like Youtube
I like the name PikiWiki. It’s easy to remember, like a song you can’t get out of your head.
Sorry Tara, but I think it is a little cutsie, but you are right, it’s hard to forget.
Yeah tara, it is great for branding.
It’s great to see a small company put together something so compelling and with a very unique flare. I can see lots of people using this. Bravo guys!
I would probably do at least 8 of the 10 things listed here: http://pikiwiki...ws/10things.jsp
Great concept. I’ll check it out later to see if it’s really as easy as it sounds.
I was using beta version of pikiwiki for some time. It’s Cool.
Rajesh Shakya
http://www.rajeshshakya.com
anyone remember octopus circa 1999 or so?
Can’t wait to try it out ! Kol ha kavod
This sounds so cool.
I am so tired of waiting for my pictures to get uploaded…
Great site.Unique,Simple and useful.
Mike,
Interesting product but with some restrictions, especially the type of content that can be used (looks like only text, pictures, audio ,video).
Check out ZCubes (http://www.zcubes.com)
ZCubes is an omni-functional pure browser based platform that allows users to create unlimited web pages (wikis, albums, posters, portals, paintings etc) using simple drag drop functionality.
You can integrate media, websites, text, RSS feeds, games, gadgets, and even PAINT and HANDWRITE directly inside the browser.
Hence the platform allows you to express your creativity using a variety of content.
My Firefox crashed when I dragged a document into PikiWiki. Its crappy!
@Harshal Vaidya: Your Firefox must be crappy, because I made several pages in PikiWiki since this article came out, and I had many more tabs open with other sites, and not once did PikiWiki give me any trouble on my Firefox. Did Firefox crash once you enabled Drag and Drop?
yawn, another empty page waiting for users to fill
welcome to the ten thousandth pointless user-data startup
wow, i love the design! cant wait to try this out OMG.
Dude I have already developed something very similar for business use:
http://www.enve...gwhiteboard.com
woops I mean :
http://www.neve...gwhiteboard.com
It looks like a useful service. Unfortunately they have made the mistake that I think yahoo made and fixed a while ago.
They claim the rights to the content you upload. From their terms of service:
“By posting any User Content, you expressly grant, and you represent and warrant that you have a right to grant, to EWS a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, translate, distribute, perform, display, and make derivative works of all such User Content and your name, voice, and/or likeness as contained in your User Content, in whole or in part, and in any form, media or technology, whether now known or hereafter developed for use in connection with the Service.”
I am certainly interested. I spent the better half of the day emailing various photos from our exhibit at a Denver Home Theater show. It sounds much easier to just drop them on a page and let friends and clients see the content. Thanks.