PBworks (formerly PBwiki) is a commercial real-time collaborative editing (RTCE) system created by David Weekly, with

Ramit Sethi Ramit Singh Sethi (born June 30, 1982) is an American author, entrepreneur, and media personality. He is the author of the 2009 ''New York Times'' Best Seller, '' I Will Teach You to Be Rich'', host of the ''I Will Teach You To Be Rich'' podcast ...

and Nathan Schmidt, who joined shortly thereafter as co-founders. Based in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the company operates on a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

basis, offering basic features free of charge and more advanced features for a fee. PBworks' investors include Mohr Davidow Ventures and the Seraph Group, as well as

angel investors An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible debt ...

Ron Conway and Chris Yeh.

History

In 2005, David Weekly began developing software to build privately hosted

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

s through a website, which he named "PeanutButterWiki". The company's original name stems from the concept that "making a

is as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich". The original

beta test The software release life cycle is the process of developing, testing, and distributing a software product (e.g., an operating system). It typically consists of several stages, such as pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and release candidate, before the fi ...

of PBworks was released for public comment on May 31, 2005. The site was formally launched in June 2005. In early 2008, the company launched PBworks 2.0, an improved version with a new layout, more granular security, and a more easily customizable color scheme. PBworks also launched a Mobile Edition in early 2009. In June 2008, the company hired Jim Groff, a former employee of

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

and

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

, as its new

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. David Weekly, the former CEO, remains its Chief Product Officer and Chairman. As of 2008, PBworks contains over 6.91 million pages of user content. In 2014, the team behind PBworks began development of its next-generation product, Dokkio.

Software

PBworks is hosted on an all-

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

cluster and uses its own proprietary

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

. In early 2007, it added

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

editing, and in 2008, limited

HTML Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It defines the content and structure of web content. It is often assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets ( ...

source editing. Since 2009, the wiki is entirely HTML based, and original wiki markup language is no longer supported. Users can create free basic wiki workspaces or upgrade to a premium plan to access additional features, such as enhanced security features, customization through CSS, and more storage space. Workspaces can be configured as either public or private (only viewable by those who have been invited to join the workspace). The software is only available in English.

Usage

A number of businesses and corporations use PBworks to create private wikis for employees; one case study described a legal firm which had transitioned to PBworks as a

document management system A document management system (DMS) is usually a computerized system used to store, share, track and manage files or documents. Some systems include history tracking where a log of the various versions created and modified by different users is r ...

in order to cut their IT costs. Major companies using PBworks to host internal documents include CafePress.com,

Capgemini Capgemini SE is a French Multinational corporation, multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and d ...

Deloitte Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wi ...

, ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'',

Kiva A kiva (also ''estufa'') is a space used by Puebloans for rites and political meetings, many of them associated with the kachina belief system. Among the modern Hopi and most other Pueblo peoples, "kiva" means a large room that is circula ...

, and Wideload Games. Many educational groups and educators use PBworks, too, including

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

, the

National Opinion Research Center NORC at the University of Chicago, previously the National Opinion Research Center, is an independent social research organization in the United States. Established in 1941, its corporate headquarters is located in downtown Chicago, with office ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, and

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

Name change

On April 28, 2009, PBwiki changed its name to PBworks (and at the same time launched a new Legal Edition).

References

External links

PBworks.com home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pbworks Companies based in San Mateo, California Internet properties established in 2005 Knowledge markets Wiki farms

History

Software

Usage

Name change

See also

References

External links