Advice from the gurus of Web 2.0 required

[andrewducker]

We're currently seeing a resurgence of collaboration software - I've seen Word and Excel clones for the web. But I'm not seeing anyone allowing for structured data - is there anyone out there selling access to a MySQL database with a pretty front end stuck on the front of it, so that people can share lists of things?

The data is currently being stored in Excel spreadsheets being emailed back and forth, and frankly it's (a) perfect for sticking in a database table, as it's just text stored in columns and (b)silly to be emailing it back and forth rather than sticking it on a server. But nobody seems to be selling pretty front ends for structured lists...

Anyone help me with this?

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Strikes me that Ning should do just that.

You should be able to build it yourself pretty quickly using some AMP implementation or other...

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Basecamp and Backpack from 47signals.com sound like a fit too. And they are chock full of that Ruby on Rails noise all the hipster kids are crazy about.

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

SubEthaEdit is by far the best collaborative text-editor I've ever come across. Unfortunately, it's a mongoose and doesn't really like nuts (or tables). But I know that it would probably be quite easy to write an extension for it for tables, and having a mysql backend too...hmn...Pity it's mac only (almost) :P.

[aberbotimue.livejournal.com]

Is this just to see the data, and manipulate it, or do the users need to alter and feedback too?