Opensource wiki developer MindTouch has released a desktop suite of productivity tools that lets you publish and edit information from Windows applications to MindTouch’s wiki. MindTouch’s portal connects teams, enterprise systems, web services and Web 2.0 applications with IT governance, enabling users to access, publish and organize data and systems. Customers include Mozilla, Microsoft, Intel, Intuit, The Washington Post, US Army, EMC, Harvard, Timberland, and The United Nations.
Here are the three major tools that MindTouch unveiled:
Aurelia Reporter: The Aurelia Reporter tool works with any Windows application and allows users to publish as MindTouch pages. The content that is published is editable, indexed by an enterprise search engine, versioned, and is able to be permissioned for specific users and groups. So PowerPoint and Excel presentations can all be captured, archived, indexed by search and editable from the web-browser with this tool.
Desktop Connector: This allow users to drag-and-drop files, including rich text with images, and folders from the desktop to MindTouch, maintaining folder hierarchy.
Microsoft Word and Outlook Connectors: Users can publish via one-click from within Word and Outlook to MindTouch. The Outlook Connector lets users publish full email conversation threads along with attachments. MindTouch says this feature helps with collaboration because the wiki serves as the main portal for gathering both documents and emails.
The tools appear to be useful for seamless collaboration between Windows applications and MindTouch’s wiki via the browser. Competitors to MindTouch include Socialtext and pbworks.
Here’s a video detailing MindTouch’s new offering: