Dear knowledgeworld,
A wiki is a web document that allows users not only to browse but also to
modify its content. Wikis are characterized by information encapsulation,
open access, and extensive hyperlinking. Information encapsulation means
that the content of a wiki is distributed among a number of entries or
nodes, each of which is dedicated to a particular subject. Some wikis are
encyclopedic in nature, containing entries on topics ranging from art
to zoology. Others are specific to a certain domain such as networking
terminology or cancer treatment.
Open access means that wikis encourage their users to correct, edit, and
augment entries, or to add new ones as they see fit. A moderated wiki,
in which users submit proposed content for approval by a panel of editors,
would run counter to the wiki philosophy and would more closely resemble
a traditional web document. The very purpose of a wiki is to promote
freedom of information and unrestricted collaboration. Nonetheless,
the most popular wikis typically have editors who are charged with
preventing vandalism and with monitoring the most controversial entries
for malicious editing.
Hyperlinking is integral to wiki structure as a way of drawing
attention to pertinent content outside the wiki as well as making
connections between nodes within the wiki. Judicious use of hyperlinks
can set information in context, provide contrasting views of subjective
questions, and draw attention to related material elsewhere. This aspect
of wikis makes them especially valuable as a means of knowledge management
within organizations. Instead of storing information at disparate sites,
knowledge engineers can integrate the content into a single wiki with
appropriate hyperlinking.
Open access also makes wikis a good choice for knowledge management in
situations where the knowledge base is spread over a flat organizational
structure rather than controlled by a hierarchy. For example, engineering
knowledge is often distributed among a large number of individual
employees, who can efficiently document their expertise by means of a wiki
without mediation by higher levels of management. Finally, information
encapsulation makes wikis a convenient choice for cataloguing knowledge
of an itemized nature. Rather than writing a single article about the
physical properties of an airplane, for instance, a wiki might document
each airplane component in a dedicated entry.
A relatively frequent commercial application of wikis is for managing
technical knowledge used in customer support. Other organizations
avail themselves of wikis for collaborative learning or departmental
knowledge consolidation. One semi-commercial wiki that I use frequently
is PythonInfo, devoted to the Python scripting language.
python.org: PythonInfo Wiki
http://www.python.org/moin/FrontPage
# Another nice example is the Moveable Type Knowledgebase wiki -
a collaboratively created and maintained collection of how-to
information about the Moveable Type software system.
# Liftwatch.org is a community portal for people working on the
concept of a space elevator and uses TikiWiki, an open source
wiki-based content management system.
Critical Methods: Wikis
http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/v.mv?d=1_34
CommSecure in Australia makes e-business solutions that are
installed over much of the world, with 24x7 support. They
use a wiki internally to track the current status of each
installation, as well as to document procedures for handling
alerts, solutions to new problems, changes in contact information,
etc. The wiki is easily updatable and everyone is encouraged
to contribute if they have new information. If the answers are
in more formal documentation, the wiki serves as the index to
that documentation, which saves people in an emergency having
to wade through several different sets of documentation provided
by third party organizations trying to find the one vital piece
of information to solve this particular problem.
The Gilbane Report: Blogs & Wikis: Technologies for Enterprise Applications?
http://www.gilbane.com/gilbane_report.pl/104/Blogs__Wikis_Technologies_for_Enterprise_Applications.html
A blog, known more formally as a weblog, is a web document with a linear
structure consisting of a chronological sequence of entries. A blog is
frequently updated, usually at least once a day, and typically published
by one person or a small group. Although users may not edit the entries
directly, they are invited to post comments at the bottom of each entry.
Although blogs often feature extensive hyperlinking, this tends to be of
an opportunistic nature rather than the semantically significant links
within a wiki. This is because the content of a blog does not reside in
a semantically coherent structure. The most important features of a blog
are frequent updating and easy content management for the authors. These
characteristics go hand in hand. The powerful, easy-to-use content
management system that forms the back end of a blog is no mistake.
The very first blogs evolved from content management systems that were
designed for content authors who wanted to publish web pages regularly
but couldn't or wouldn't edit HTML directly. Since blog tools appeal
to novice users by design, much blog content is of an informal or
personal nature. But many other blogs are written in a serious style
by journalists, engineers, and other professionals. The blog is an
ideal medium for managing closed-domain knowledge of a continuous or
episodic nature.
Organizations often use blogs as a tool for marketing and personal
relations. The leading figures in a company, such as Bill Gates at
Microsoft or Michael Dell at Dell, will personally or nominally publish
a weblog as a way of publicizing the company's latest efforts and
strengthening the brand. Other blogs are used to regularly disseminate
news of a time-sensitive nature, such as meteorological or medical
bulletins. The British Broadcasting Corporation is a prominent example
of an organization that manages its knowledge internally using blogs as
well as wikis.
Q: On my recent visit to your offices I was really impressed
with the demonstration you gave me and the extent to which it
appeared the BBC had enthusiastically harnessed wikis, blogs,
forums and social networking elements internally. For those who
weren?t there to see for themselves, can you outline some of
the key developments for us?
A: [...] We then put in a blog server and now have around 70
blogs being written by about 100 people. They are being used
for a variety of tasks from group blogs for project teams to
operational logs to pass on info between engineering shifts to
personal blogs capturing individual learning and experiences.
Lastly we have implemented a wiki. We chose a tool that allows
us to manage access a bit. I know the principle of wikis is to
be totally open but that is not always possible or approriate
in current corporate culture and we have to acknowledge this
and work with it. The people most attracted to using wikis are
those involved in writing formal documents, policy, manuals etc.
Broadband Blog: London Blogging
http://www.broadbandblog.com/2005/03/22/london-blogging/#more-2
It is now increasingly common to set up a blog to accompany the
release of a new book. Steve Levitt and Dubner have done this
for their new book Freakonomics.
Institutional Economics: Freakonomics
http://www.institutional-economics.com/index.php/section/freakonomics/
Navarik in Vancouver, Canada, writes software for marine shipping
companies. They use a blog internally to record when an update
to some software has been uploaded to the server for the customer
to download. The customer can then put in comments on the latest
version, such as if there are any problems found. Thus the blog
serves as a log file; since the latest updates are typically the
ones people are most concerned with, the reverse chronological
filing order and the fact that older items fall below the fold
are advantages. [...]
Seattle Children?s Hospital publishes intranet pages in the same
way as the external pages mentioned earlier. The same blogging
system (a highly modified version of MovableType) is used as the
basis of the departmental web sites. Pages are created that serve
as gateways to necessary manuals, making it easy for clinical
staff to find the most recent version of whichever document
they need. And because it?s easy for the department staff to
add information about new forms or procedures, the quantity of
email has markedly decreased, and the probability of a clinical
staff member missing something has also decreased. The system
also has plugins that enable pulling information from one blog
and publishing it on another (news items, for example), which
further decreases the time and effort required to disseminate
information across the departments.
The Gilbane Report: Blogs & Wikis: Technologies for Enterprise Applications?
http://www.gilbane.com/gilbane_report.pl/104/Blogs__Wikis_Technologies_for_Enterprise_Applications.html
It has been an interesting challenge to address this question on your
behalf. If you feel that any part of my answer requires correction or
elaboration, please inform me through a Clarification Request so that
I have a chance to fully meet your needs before you assign a rating.
Regards,
leapinglizard |
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