Socialtext founders launch Pingpad, a single app for chatting and collaborating | VentureBeat | Apps | by Ken Yeung

After cycling through knowledge management, enterprise 2.0, enterprise social, activity streams, and more, the software industry has gone back to basics: collaboration is back, and it's also at the center of the Office 2016 value proposition

"What Pingpad aims to do is streamline the entire process so that people won’t have to bounce from app to app just to be productive in their daily lives. Yes, you can jot notes on Evernote or Quip using a mobile device, but the actual messaging part is difficult, plus their network effect isn’t as big as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. And if you use those tools, you’re going to find it difficult to compose notes or documents. Pingpad appears to be positioning itself as the best of both worlds.

But here’s the thing: Is the time right for such a tool? Is this what people are genuinely looking for? Google apparently tried something like this in 2006 with its acquisition of Wiki collaboration service JotSpot (which was eventually rolled into the creation of Google Sites). Let’s also not forget that Slack seems to have done pretty well in the marketplace."

Socialtext founders launch Pingpad, a single app for chatting and collaborating | VentureBeat | Apps | by Ken Yeung