We’ve been looking at possible Wiki solutions for enabling student collaborations next semester - a product which has had a few rave reviews is Writely. It uses a Wiki engine and appears to have excellent functionality; the interface looks nicer and easier to use than some other Wiki software I’ve seen. The good news is that the company has just been purchased by Google, which probably means it’s on the up. The less good news is that although it is free now while it is in Beta, in the future ….
‘Our hope is to have the basic service be free, with some extra features
requiring a reasonable subscription fee*. We will also be charging license fees
to corporations and partners.’

It’s not easy to try out right now because they have temporarily suspended registrations, presumably while they sort out Google branding. But if you have a look at the web site, demo and the FAQ you get an idea of what is possible. I also found an interesting short paper on the use of Writely in a student collaborative learning environment which is worth reading. Any thoughts?

I think it’s also worth looking at Writeboard again (from 37signals, the people who make Basecamp) to compare functionality …. What do we gain/lose with products like these vs. running our own open source Wiki?

Iain