It's Official...Wiki's for Business

Wikis are back in the blogosphere this week and in a big way. I was scanning through Technorati for Knowledge Management articles and a very high percentage of posts were concerning WIkis.

A bit of the hubbub was over the article, How to Use Wikis for Business (August 8, 2005) by Ezra Goodnoe. I was linked to it by Ian's Messy Desk , Jeremy Smith's Blog, and The Thicket.

So how do you use a Wiki in business?

Central to the argument is this thought: "Wikis are designed to facilitate the exchange of information within and between teams. Content in a wiki can be updated without any real lag, without any real administrative effort, and without the need for distribution — users/contributors (with wikis, they're one and the same) simply visit and update a common Web site."

Also important for businesses are some of the following facts, "wikis are cheap, extensible, and easy to implement, and they don't require a massive software rollout;" "wikis are Web-based and thus present little or no learning curve in the adoption cycle, and they allow the user to determine the relevancy of content rather than being dependent upon a central distribution center or a linear distribution chain;" and wikis "organize themselves organically. In other words, users can create their own site structure, or ontology rather than have it imposed on them by the developers of content management software."

But, there are also issues with wiki's (like any application). The article is filled with information about Wikis, what they are, their history, and other practical advice. There is also a nice sidebar on when to consider a Wiki, and when a Wiki might not be right for your business.