Productwiki

ProductWiki is a web-based product information resource, written by real people from all around the world. We're a wiki, which is a kind of website where every user can also be a contributor to the site. Our goal is to create a comprehensive information resource that covers all products in depth. We strongly believe that there needs to exist an unbiased, accurate and community-based resource for product information. Currently we're focusing on english content and products released in North America, however the reach of ProductWiki will be global as the project grows.

ProductWiki is open content, which means we don't own the content and anybody can use the information on the site in any way they want to, commercial or otherwise, as long as they give credit to us as the source.

There are a few things to keep in mind when using ProductWiki. Right now, we're very early in the project, so this means that there's not a lot of product information on the site. However, don't look at this as a negative, instead think of the early stage of ProductWiki as a blank slate. There are so many problems with product information on the Internet and out in the world. The blank slate of ProductWiki is an opportunity to let us build something from scratch that will be logical, useful and reliable. It's going to be tough at the beginning, but as we grow standards and policies and best practices will emerge that will make the whole process easier and more streamlined.

Product information and categorization is a difficult problem, and is one of the reasons why doing product research can be such a difficult thing to do. Through concentrated focus and efforts, both from a social angle working with the community, and a technical approach through advanced software development we'll be able to solve these problems and make researching products a far less painful ordeal.

The community is here to help. So if you have any problems doing research, or making a purchasing decision, just ask (start a discussion or comment on someone's page) and there's a good chance you'll get your answer. If you want to help out with the project the community will also be more than happy to help you ease into the process. Again, be bold and just start contributing and collaborating. If you have questions on how to contribute, the founders will always be available for help.

Erik Kalviainen (Founder):

I'm Erik Kalviainen, one of the founders of ProductWiki. I'm 29 (as of Oct. 20th), Canadian, and graduated from the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering in 2002. I'm a self-professed consumer maven (hence the website), and I have a lot of interests outside of the Internet including soccer, music, movies, space, math, and reality tv.

Favorite things
Flight of the Conchords Curb Your Enthusiasm The Office (US and UK) mathematical constants: π, e, i, φ physics: quantum and astro The Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, etc. Xbox, Xbox 360, Wi audio/video equipment recursion: (n. Mathematics.) def. see recursion.
Damon Young (Director)

Damon Young is Director of Projectlocker. After several years as both a software developer, technical architect, and project manager, Damon now applying his knowledge of the development cycle to help project teams become more effective through the use of ProjectLocker. With ProjectLocker's suite of hosted software development tools, including source control through Subversion & CVS, issue management through Scarab and Trac, document management, and wiki, businesses of all sizes can immediately deploy a secure and professionally managed development infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of installing and maintaining it internally, while freeing their developers from having to perform these administrative tasks themselves and focus on what they do best - Build Better Software.

Damon Young’s Specialties:
Software Development
Project Management,Technical Sales,Hosted Software Quality Tools,Web Services,Application Management,Source Control,Issue Management,Bug Tracking,Document Management,Version,Control,Subversion,CVS,Trac,Scarab,WebDAV,Wiki,TWiki,Technical Support,Consulting,Web Development Consultant
Networking Consulting.