OpenWetWare:Feature list/Lab notebook/2007 Oct Brainstorming/Koch

Here is what I am currently thinking are key features

Ranked in priority in terms of likelihood of making wiki lab notebooks a killer app for OWW:

Per Anne Ozaksut (see below): spreadsheet functionality would be a killer feature to add.
Java sketch pad (and some mechanism for converting to text)?
Need to be able to email to the wiki (as w/ Social Text)...this provides a pipeline for adding notes to your lab notebook if you have to rush out of the lab, forget to write something down, or just plain have an idea. Of course, you can email to yourself and then cut and paste, but that takes diligence.
Copyright and licensing problems--it is fine to paste any kind of picture or anything in a printed lab notebook as "fair use" (I think). But it's not OK to upload to OWW, because technically you are putting a "copyleft" license on it. (And it may not be fair use, since it's so widely available?) This is a problem.
Better file uploading--drag and drop w/ version control
Integration w/ WikiCommons or Wikipedia: (i.e., like for Wikipedia when you can embed images from the Commons)

They are drawn to Excel because I haven't provided them a better option and the wiki doesn't do any spreadsheet, graphing, or data analysis.
They like the table editor
Many of them prefer to take data down on paper and then transfer it over. So far I'm not requiring e-notebook for primary entries, because sometimes it is necessary (computer not available, or need to have lights off and eyes adjusted).
As far as giving feedback early and often, e-notebooks are far superior to printed notebooks, simply because I can access them anytime.
I haven't detected any qualms at all about doing their work in public. So, it appears easy to create Scientists 2.0. :)
Collaboration (and proper citation) between students, even on different lab days has been a real pleasure to observe...I think the wiki has added a completely new and very rewarding dimension to the traditional undergrad physics lab course.

A great idea from Anne Ozaksut, a student in Phyiscs 307L: Incorporate more spreadsheet and even graphing technology into the wiki. I have seen this with wikicalc, which I think was in collaboration with SocialText? The more I think about it, the more important it seems.
The short-lived cookies (session doesn't last very long, even if you change this under "my preferences") is a real annoying thing
The new table editor is great, but has a couple drawbacks
- Has a bug so that data is lost when saving
- Apparently creates non-wiki style table code that is tough to edit without the editor? (I'm not sure about this)