Shimon Rura offers some interesting observations on wikis. He concludes:
“Wikis are for small, purposeful, long-term collaborative efforts. If a wiki has over 20 participants and no clearly defined work-product—i.e. a type of document to be developed on the wiki itself, such as product specifications—it will bewilder new users due to its lack of simple organizing logic or obvious ways to acquire context.
Wikis do better to focus on a few work-products that evolve gradually than many work-products that frequently become obsolete. Wikis save everything, and do not give priority to recent entries. Constant new entries dilute the purpose of the wiki and it's hard to evaluate which of two conflicting entries represents current thinking.”
I agree with Shimon and think the key here is that wikis need a purpose. Their total lack of structure requires a clearly defined collaborative task to avoid chaos. I also think their role in business is limited but they become a huge productivity gain for the times that suit them. I think there is no better tool than a wiki when:
- It involves the input of many people in a virtual, asynchronous manner. The voice of the group is more important than the voice of the individuals.
- The task is clearly defined but the organization of the content, as well as the content itself, is in flux (e.g., developing a taxonomy, planning both the focus and agenda for an event).
- The participants know each other and have a trusting relationship. Disruptive, unproductive behavior is not tolerated by the group and people are motivated to participate.
- The tool needs to be transparent to the task and intuitive for a wide range of participants with different technical backgrounds. In this case, the simplicity of the wiki will allow for the participants to focus on the task and not the tool.
- The wiki is a vehicle to assist in the early stages of a joint task and not an end in itself. Ideally, it sets up a synchronous, or same time, exchange where differences can be resolved. It could also be the place to record thoughts between a series of these meetings.
However, for the contents of the wiki to evolve beyond a rough planning guide, it may need the editorship of a few people (or one person) to take the raw material and refine it. See below for Shimon’s links to an extension of wikis – blikis.
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