For some time now SpaceRef has wanted to create an online collaborative service for the space community. It took some time though to try and find the right platform that would allow us to provide the community with the appropriate tools so they could in turn create rich interactive collaborate services.
I'm happy to say that we've now launched our new service called ColabSpace under our brand OnOrbit.
The goal of the service is to provide the tools that will allow users to effectively collaborate on a project increasing productivity so that any given project moves ahead in a timely manner to conclusion.
For the platform we decided to use Deki, a social enterprise collaborative platform from MindTouch. Why did we use Deki? For starters it was because of its ease of use. If you want a simple wiki then it will do that. At first glance it looks just like another wiki, but under the hood it's a robust platform, where only your imagination is the limit. If you want to create some really cool collaborative mashup services then Deki provides a wide array of extensions allowing you to plug in to services like Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Mantis for developers, Chat, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Google services such as Maps, Calendar, Apps including Docs, Spreadsheets and nearly a hundred more services.
The platform also comes with it's own scripting language called DekiScript which allows you even more flexibility in modifying your service and cretaing your own extensions. As well if you've already got a MediaWiki, Confluence, PBWiki or other wiki then odds are MindTouch has the conversion tool that will allow you to import it into ColabSpace.
At this time SpaceRef is seeking groups, organizations and even companies who want to access our service. For the small groups or non-profit organization we offer a free community site where you can build your services. For those who need a little more such as their own branding including use of their own domain name, we offer an enterprise option at a very reasonable monthly fee of $79.00 which includes full hosting with your own IP.
We're going to contribute to the community by providing some of the data we've collected from over 1500 companies, organizations, universities and space agencies over the last nine years to help build out a commercial space wiki. We won't be able to do it alone so we're appealing to the community to help us.
We're already using the service ourselves for the Space Elevator Reference were we've launched an Open Wiki and are working towards launching a Developers Wiki.
We are also currently in discussions with a few organizations to see what interest they have in using the free service and expect to have some of them using ColabSpace soon.
SpaceRef was started in 1999 to provide something back to the community from it's founders who have had a life long passion for space. Subsequently and because of our popularity we've turned SpaceRef into a business, however at our roots has always been a willingness to provide something back to the community. ColabSpace Community is yet another example of what we're offering back to the community.
I hope you'll join us as we build out ColabSpace and bring another great service to the space community.
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