Traction Software, Inc. is a software company headquartered in Providence, RI

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

, with an international presence in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 via its partner Applied Knowledge Japan Co, Ltd. It is the creator of the widely used Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage is a proprietary enterprise 2.0 social software product developed by Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island.TeamPage is one of the first products in the enterprise blog and wiki market, with Traction release 1.0 shipped in 1999....

 Enterprise 2.0 social software platform which participates in the enterprise wiki

Wiki software

Wiki software is collaborative software that runs a wiki, i.e., a website that allows users to create and collaboratively edit web pages via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers...

, Blog

Weblog software

Weblog software is software designed to simplify the creation and maintenance of weblogs...

, Collaboration

Collaborative software

Collaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...

, and micro-blogging

Micro-blogging

Microblogging is a broadcast medium in the form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically smaller in both actual and aggregate file size...

 software markets. The company also participates in the Knowledge management software

Knowledge management software

Knowledge management software is a subset of Enterprise content management software and which contains a range of software that specializes in the way information is collected, stored and/or accessed...

 and Competitive Intelligence

Competitive intelligence

A broad definition of competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for an organization.Key...

 software markets.

History

The company was founded in 1996 by Chris Nuzum and Gregory Lloyd who were heavily influenced by the work of Douglas Engelbart

Douglas Engelbart

Douglas Carl Engelbart is an American inventor, and an early computer and internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human-computer interaction, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs...

's On-Line System (the first hypertext journaling system) and other hypertext pioneers including Andy van Dam's HES

HES

HES may refer to* human embyonic stem cells* Environment, Health and Safety * Harvard Extension School* Health Survey For England, an annual statistical survey in England* Hypertext Editing System...

 and Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson

Theodor Holm Nelson is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and published it in 1965...

's Xanadu.

The company was first to the Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 is the use of "Web 2.0" technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration - connecting people through the use of social-media tools. Enterprise 2.0 aims to help employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and...

 software market with releases dating back to 1999 and a commercial market launch in 2002 when Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage is a proprietary enterprise 2.0 social software product developed by Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island.TeamPage is one of the first products in the enterprise blog and wiki market, with Traction release 1.0 shipped in 1999....

 Version 2.8 was the first platform to be dubbed an Enterprise Weblog.

In 2003, the US Department of Defense CIO office funded a Rapid Acquisition Incentive-Net Centricity (RAI-NC) pilot program, titled the "Liberty Project," to study the business case for using social software for net-centric project communication and information management. The study involved funding to add the WebDAV

WebDAV

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning is a set of methods based on the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on World Wide Web servers...

 extension to the Traction platform and to support the following Liberty Project participants: Traction Software, The Office of Naval Research, the Army Night Vision Lab, Defense Acquisition University, Naval Underwater Warfare Center, Marine Corps, Ford Motor Company, and the New York City Police.

Traction Software was named to KMWorld’s 100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management for six consecutive years through 2010 .
In the Competitive Intelligence market, Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage is a proprietary enterprise 2.0 social software product developed by Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island.TeamPage is one of the first products in the enterprise blog and wiki market, with Traction release 1.0 shipped in 1999....

 was included in Fuld & Company Intelligence Software Report in 2008/2009 , 2006/2007 , and 2004/2005.

Funding

The company was initially funded by In-Q-Tel

In-Q-Tel

In-Q-Tel of Arlington, Virginia, United States is a not-for-profit venture capital firm that invests in high-tech companies for the sole purpose of keeping the Central Intelligence Agency equipped with the latest in information technology in support of United States intelligence capability...

 (the venture arm of the US Central Intelligence Agency) in May 2000.. In-Q-Tel followed through in June 2002 with a customer agreement that represents the first significant enterprise site license of a blogging platform.

Traction Software raised a second round in 2002 with participation from In-Q-Tel, the Slater Fund, and private investors.

Products

Traction Software products include:
Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage

Traction TeamPage is a proprietary enterprise 2.0 social software product developed by Traction Software Inc of Providence Rhode Island.TeamPage is one of the first products in the enterprise blog and wiki market, with Traction release 1.0 shipped in 1999....

Traction TeamPage Attivio Search Module

Traction TeamPage Feed Reader and

Traction Instant Publisher