Ross Mayfield's Weblog

One Spreadsheet Per Child: SocialCalc on the OLPC XO

Dan Bricklin has ported the SocialCalc spreadsheet to the OLPC XO as an Open Source project.  The One Laptop Per Child XO currently doesn't have a spreadsheet, but the simplicity and small footprint on client or server of SocialCalc may give it one.  As Dan blogs, Socialtext is supportive of this very good project:

The One Laptop folks had been encouraging me to make wikiCalc and then SocialCalc run on their machines for a long time, but it wasn't until now that I finally had the software in an architecture that was appropriate for the OLPC and a machine of my own on which to test. (I think that because the G1G1 campaign got a lot of these lovable computers in the hands of developers a thousand new flowers are sure to bloom...)

I showed my testbed application to SJ Klein of the OLPC project and he reacted favorably and encouraged me to continue. The executives at Socialtext encouraged me to follow through and are supporting what I'm doing.

I've now packaged the code I have a little better and am making it available for others to see. I'm calling the project "Sweet SocialCalc" because when we are done I hope we will have native OLPC code driving this (written in Python) so the JavaScript integrates with the OLPC user interface environment (which is called Sugar, hence the word "sweet"). (See my video of a presentation about Sugar and OLPC from last June.)...

One Laptop Per Child News writes about the need for a spreadheet solution:

Currently, the XO laptop from OLPC does not have spreadsheet software. The One Laptop Per Child developers did not think there was a need for it when they designed the initial Sugar activities, and to an extent, they are right.

Children do not need the ability to run macros on numeric data - that's an adult request. But it is an opportunity for children and adults to bond over basic math, as the Thailand pilot showed:

One of the most engaging project that has involved both students and parents is the family accounting initiative. For six years, many families have recorded their income and expenses in order to better manage their spendings. It was originally done using a simple balance card written on paper.

Later, many had switched to Excel (via desktop PCs at the school's computer lab and the help of their children). It was a case where the benefits of technology was clear and well appreciated. Thus, having a spreadsheet on the XO has been one of the most widely requested features from the parents. Being able to do their accounting at home through the help of their children is extremely attractive.

Dan is looking for feedback and volunteers to help advance the project.

wikiCalc 1.0

Dan Bricklin hit his big milestone, with the release of wikiCalc 1.0.

Now that wikiCalc has made the step to version 1.0 status, it is time to look to the future. There are many important features to be added and many people to bring into the project so that it can flourish. I intend to continue devoting a lot of time to this product.

Here's what will happen next: As I wrote back last June, Socialtext is going to integrate wikiCalc functionality into their wiki system and provide hosting and support to those that want it. They are also funding an open source project around the wikiCalc code so that I can move the product forward as part of a community.

This wikiCalc 1.0 code will form the base release to start what Socialtext is calling the SocialCalc project. While the Software Garden release of wikiCalc is covered under the GPL 2.0 license, Software Garden is the author of the entire wikiCalc product and owner of the copyright. There have been no "contributions". This will change with the SocialCalc codebase. That code will be developed much more in the open and will accept contributions from others (subject to my approval for now) who will hold the copyright to their contributions. My development work on new features will be going into SocialCalc, and Socialtext will be providing a lot of developer time, too, so that is where the future action will be. SocialCalc will be released under a Socialtext Public License that, being based on the Mozilla Public License 1.1, may be more appropriate for some companies who have issues with the GPL. (For users that want code covered under the GPL, this wikiCalc version 1.0 will always be available under that license.) There will be more news about SocialCalc at a later time.

For me, this is a major milestone. It's been a long time since I've brought a product all the way from conception to 1.0 release. I love programming and I love developing products and the last year and a half has been a treat. I look forward to sharing the next phase with others.

Openformula.org Appropriated by Cybersquatter

A comment tipped me to the fact that Openformula.org has been (mis)appropriated by a cybersquatter.  This website used to be the home of the spreadsheet standard of the Open Document Format (ODF) to which SocialCalc is compliant.

BTW, we are still looking for the right person to work with us as a SocialCalc Developer.

wikiCalc Screencast

Dan Bricklin just put up a new screencast of wikiCalc that shows off some of the features in the same release that will become SocialCalc.

The screencast shows the latest version. (The last one was done in June.) In addition to the normal run through of the product features shown in the last screencast, this one has a short introduction that positions the product and adds a few minutes of demonstrations of the work flow, Live View functionality, embedding on other web pages, etc. For example, it shows viewing a consolidated report, clicking on a link to a divisional report, logging in to view that page, clicking "Edit This Page" on that report, making a change, and then viewing the updated consolidated values. It also shows using a normal web page with a form to call up another page with an embedded spreadsheet that includes calculations that are based on values provided by the form.

Chat with Sam Ramji on Port 25

When we launched SocialPoint on Monday, I had a chance to sit down with Sam Ramji of Microsoft.  A video of the conversation and Sam's thoughts are on Port 25.

Even more interesting to me given my role at Microsoft is that Socialtext has built a Sharepoint integration ("Socialpoint").  This gives Sharepoint users access to a best-of-breed wiki and blogging engine while retaining presence, Office integration, and a unified portal infrastructure.  My inner geek got going when Ross described the new protocol handler they’ve built - "socialpoint:foo/bar" - for navigating within Sharepoint across wikis.  I think this is a good example of how Microsoft platform software should be combined with open source applications.  We continue to invest in scaling the infrastructure, and open it up to developers for innovative applications that can change as often as customers require.

wikiCalc Feature-Complete for 1.0

Dan Bricklin reached a milestone yesterday in the evolution of wikiCalc, the wiki-based spreadsheet.  In releasing wikiCalc 0.96, it is feature-complete, and he put out a call for help:

What's next? I really need help testing this product...

...wikiCalc has the potential to be an important product for the Open Source community as well as for IT in general. It is a complete server-based spreadsheet that runs on your own server, not only on a service provided by others. It keeps an audit trail that may be helpful to corporations that are concerned about such things (Sarbanes-Oxley?). It works like a wiki as part of a web of potentially editable pages in a collaborative environment. It is written in a popular scripting language (Perl) that makes it well suited for experimentation. It would be great to have the 1.0 release come out after a reasonable amount of final testing.

What's new in wikiCalc 0.96 includes support for the 109+ computational functions listed on Openformula.org, part of Open Document Format (ODF).  The product is fully internationalized, and easy to localize using a single human-readable file.

Dan also advanced the formatting and publishing abilities of wikiCalc into something truly unique:

In a visual sense, I wanted the product to be able to produce real web pages that were at a professional enough level that corporations would feel comfortable using the product for internal use and perhaps even external use. That was a real challenge which I believe that I've met.

As an example, Dan replicated the IBM Financial Statements you would find in the investor relations section of their website.  Only one key difference, the ability to let some people have the ability to edit this page.

Socialtext is working to integrate wikiCalc as SocialCalc into our Appliance, Hosted and Open Source distributions at the end of the year.

SocialCalc Beta

This morning Socialtext released SocialCalc Beta 1, the Commercial-Open Source version of wikiCalc.  Dan Bricklin has made great progress with the wiki-based spreadsheet since we started working together.  Download it now on SourceForge and let us know what you think.

wikiCalc Screencast

Dan Bricklin prepared a screencast (7Mb, .swf) as an introduction to using wikiCalc.  In it, you will see him paste from Excel and mashup stock quote and charting feeds.  The Associated Press posted a in-depth profile of Dan that's a great read.  Also read his blog posts working with Socialtext and the Beta release.

UPDATE: Podcast with Eric Lundquist from eWeek and Dan Bricklin.