Lateef J. wrote to tell us that Num Sum is mentioned in the current (Nov 14, 2005) edition of Business Week. Woot. Our first glossy print magazine appearance! Being captured in physical atoms — seems so special compared to the digital version of immortality.
So I went down to our local independent bookstore (Keppler’s), and they didn’t carry Business Week. Gratification delayed….
Anyhow, thanks Lateef!
Paul Graham writes about web spreadsheets as an example to generating ideas for startups…
The initial idea is just a starting point– not a blueprint, but a question. It might help if they were expressed that way. Instead of saying that your idea is to make a collaborative, web-based spreadsheet, say: could one make a collaborative, web-based spreadsheet? A few grammatical tweaks, and a woefully incomplete idea becomes a promising question to explore.
This is what normal people use spreadsheets for: basically, it’s not for financial analysis
You probably thought this blog was abandoned.
Ha, wrong. It just cleverly appeared that way. It was the plan. Yeah.
Num Sum just got waxy-linked/delicious-populared, so all of a sudden the team (ahem, me) wakes up with actual email and blog comments about Num Sum. Neat. Cheapest, bootstrapiest marketing evar.
Idea note: in one of the blog comments, Jonathan Aquino pointed me to his cool Yub Nub social command line website.
What if you mashed up Yub Nub and Num Sum? Besides getting a chop suey of Yub Sum (yummy and addictive) what if you could use spreadsheets as sort of a sloppy yet easy data-holding area or blackboard to help string together complex web service integrations? You’d use Yub Sub commands to extract information from websites, dump tables or lists into a temp spreadsheet, slice and dice, and display the output (or keep on piping to the next command (or spreadsheet)).
Of course, it’d be social, too, so everyone wins.
The lesson from Moore’s Law in the Datacenter is simple: machine resources are not valuable.
Human resources (time, attention, mindshare), in contrast, are valuable, whether they belong to your customers or to your employees.
Here’s a spreadsheet conservatively extrapolating prices to 2015…
One reason why I got into Num Sum was because of Clayton Christensen’s Innovators Solution/Dilemma. The question is whether the desktop spreadsheet market can be disrupted.
Incumbent desktop spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel today overserve us. There are way too many features at this point that nobody uses. Microsoft has even added “features” like annoying dancing paper clips. Then a few releases later they add the “feature” of removing the dancing paper clips. That’s humorous.
But Microsoft’s not smiling because there’s nothing compelling that entices us to upgrade anymore and our old software runs just fine. Do you care to pay to upgrade to the next upcoming Office release? Or, do you grimace at the thought that something is going to break?
The Open Office folk take the open-source approach to attacking the incumbent software provider. Check out their Open Office Calc program. Except for it’s free/open-source license, Open Office Calc is pretty much the same as Excel.
Num Sum takes a different approach, with the web-based spreadsheet.
In nearly all measures, the Num Sum spreadsheet web service can’t compare to Excel or to Open Office Calc. Less features, less formulas, less ability. And, thankfully, also no dancing paper clips.
However, Num Sum is better in two respects.
- Num Sum works anywhere. This is a key differentiator that all web-based software (GMail, bloglines, maps.google.com) shares. All you and your friends need is a web browser and you can get at your online Num Sum spreadsheets.
- Sharability and social capability. Num Sum spreadsheets are sharable instantly with the world. As Num Sum grows, too, you will see like-minded people from all over working on the same kinds of spreadsheets as you.
As to what people will do with these unique web-spreadsheet features, who knows?
Finally, following the Christensen model, there’s the question of who are the nonconsumers of desktop spreadsheets that would probably love Num Sum?
I have several theories, but one of my favorites is this: I think of folks who don’t own their own computer (yet), which is much of the 3rd world. (More than half the world has never touched a spreadsheet?) In their situation, Num Sum is the only alternative. A web-based spreadsheet is better than no spreadsheet at all. Think of the brilliant student who can only access a computer at their university. Or at an Internet cafe. Who doesn’t even own a flash drive yet. If Num Sum can provide them with a useful service, well then I say welcome to the world of rows, columns, A1, SUM() and AVERAGE().
Imitation is flattery. And, there’s lots of flattery that I’d like to send towards the way of del.icio.us (social bookmarks), Flickr (social photos), tadalist (social todo lists) and 43things (social life goals).
To add to the trend, I’d like to point you to Num Sum (http://numsum.com).
The question we ask at Num Sum is whether there’s such a thing as social spreadsheets.
Please check it out and let us know what you think.
One apology: like all new stuff on the web, it’s beta, so please understand if it’s a little pokey (slow response). We’re improving it fast.
Here’s an example of posting a spreadsheet to a blog…
Click here to see the editable version of this web-based spreadsheet.
Should I buy a mac? Here’s my thinking, leaning towards the 15 inch powerbook…
Rather than using Excel, of course, I figured this type of thing is good use for a Num Sum spreadsheet. I wanted to show how easy it is to share spreadsheets like my comparison homework.
Some friends came over and showed off their 15′ powerbook. Wow. On just merely on the detailing of the thing, like the power connector and the I/O jacks… Wow. Man, it was gorgeous.
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