Dan Bicklin, a co-founder of the world's first spreadsheet program, Visicalc, is back. This time he is up against Google with an online spreadsheet he calls WikiCalc. The open-source software will be distributed by SocialText.

I've tried the Beta version and it's easy to use and powerful. I don't think I'll put away my Excel spreadsheets any time soon but the big advantage of WikiCalc is that it is also a Wiki. That means you can publish your spreadsheets to the Internet. It also means collaborators can access your data and modify it. Changes are automatically tracked.

This is an interesting tool from one of the legends of the PC world. WIki fans in the audience might find WIkiCalc invaluable.