Updated: Online spreadsheets seem to be the new black. A couple of days after Google announced its Spreadsheet, hosted wiki company, Socialtext has entered into a partnership with wikiCalc, an online spread sheet developed by Dan Bricklin, president of Software Garden and the inventor of the pioneering PC spreadsheet VisiCalc. As part of this agreement, Socialtext purchased some rights to wikiCalc, and Bricklin has joined the board of Socialtext, which willcontinue the development of it, and lead the community effort. Ross Mayfield, Socialtext founder tells his story.

wikiCalc is a “social spreadsheet” that enables organizations, small and large, to collaborate and share data online. As part of the deal, Socialtext will exclusively distribute and redistribute wikiCalc to enterprise customers. The partners will co-develop the product’s future versions.

The beta version of this future version of the product will be released under a liberal Open Source license. In addition to this forthcoming product, Socialtext plans to release its core product as Socialtext Open Source Edition. This will allow users to download and install the same version used in Socialtext’s commercial offerings, contribute to the development of the software, or even build new services around the core technology.