"Early in 2007" (it says here) Apple will start shipping its OS X Leopard Server. "So what?" I hear you ask. And the answer is that it will incorporate a wiki. What an incredibly sensible idea - a freeform collaboration medium built right in to the operating system.

Details are sparse, but it claims it will be easy to activate and easy to use. It will be part of the intranet but without the negative connotations. Teams will collaborate from their browsers and gain all the usual advantages of wikis: reduction of email; full version history; information resources on tap; a permanent record in the event of people leaving or for people joining... You can probably compose the list better than me.

It works with calendars, chat and blogs and gives reach into the wider intranet. It also avoids the need to remember the peculiar mark-up that used to be associated with wiki use. The smarter wiki companies, like Socialtext, have already realised what a huge barrier this was to wiki usage and have moved to an optional dual mode, like blogs, where you can work in wysiwyg or mark-up, to suit your needs/personality.

This might invite the usual hate-comments but it has to be said: it's an Apple server. And this may not sit at all well with your company policy. If access is through a browser, this suggests that it doesn't matter what client machines are in use. But my guess is that Apple users will benefit more  than non-Apple users, especially when using stuff like shared calendars or chat. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.