Brian Lamb provides, in the EDUCAUSE Review, one of the best introductions to wikis that I have seen. I found his work through Many 2 Many. He starts with a quote from the jazz bass player, Charlie Mingus.
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. “
I have used a similar thought from Einstein in talks but will now switch to Mingus, one of my favorite musicians. Brian lists the four essential characteristics of wikis:
- Anyone can change anything.
- Wikis use simplified hypertext markup.
- WikiPageTitlesAreMashedTogether.
- Content is ego-less, time-less, and never finished.
The last feature, like the use of the personal voice in blogs, is derivative of the technology and not required by the tool. So it is the easiest one to violate when using wiki software. But is also the most important of the defining features. It frames the proper place for wikis. If the content needs to be considered “finished” such as a procedures manual, then wikis are not a good final content repository. A blog could take over here. If the content is in flux, such as the creation of the taxonomy and draft content for a procedures manual, then wikis can be a uniquely invaluable tool.
Wikis are a cousin to blogs because they both promote the bottom up generation of content and ideas. But they are different and should be used differently. Blogs provide a means for the personal voice or a collection of personal voices and they allow for the connection and exchange of personal voices. For many uses, this is essential. Wikis provide a means for the group voice. The personal voice gets absorbed within the group voice, but for many tasks this is a good thing.
Brian provides a great response to standard objections to wikis. “Think of an open wiki space as a home that leaves its front door unlocked but doesn’t get robbed because the neighbors are all out on their front steps gossiping, keeping a friendly eye on the street, and never missing a thing. This ethic is at the heart of “SoftSecurity,” which relies on the community, rather than technology, to enforce order.”
Studies have shown that mistakes intentionally added to the wikipedia are fixed with minutes. Governance is in the hands of the users and depends on the health of the community rather than the features of the tool. Like blogs, authentication of wiki content is flipped. It becomes democratic and is now the individual responsibility of the readers.
Brian also addresses the concern that the interface can be ugly. I agree with his counter point, that “the quality is deep, not at the surface.” The focus becomes the content and not the decoration. It reminds me of a line from the Frank Sinatra song about New York, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” The content has to stand on its own merits.
Wikis give us a new freedom and new responsibilities. A first step is getting re-oriented to the openness. Brian quotes, Bob Dylan, “I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.” The next step is creating a unique order to this chaos. Brian quotes Vita Sackville West, “It isn’t that I don’t like sweet disorder, but it has to be judiciously arranged.”
These are just the highlights. Brian offers much more.
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