I wanted to catch up on what has been happening in the world of Wikis, and I stumbled upon Stewart Mader's Grow Your Wiki blog through an article he had written for Website Magazine entitled 5 Effective Wiki Uses. Mr. Mader is a huge proponent of wikis and has an excellent series of short videos as a part of a series called 21 days of wiki adoption.
First, I am a lover of wikis as a tool. I use one that has enhanced efficiency and it has proven very useful for certain collaboration projects. So after having watched the twenty-one, 2 - 5 minute videos, I must say that Website Magazine did Stewart a huge disservice by either requesting, or allowing a condensed version of Mr. Mader's work.
The article names the 5 effective uses as,
- Project Management
- Customer/Client Collaboration
- Documentation
- Online Community
- Policy, FAQ, Guidelines, and Best Practices
Standalone, with only a small paragraph to describe each of these in the article, I was left with a number of gaps, questions, and even disagreements with using a wiki for a few of the purposes mentioned. However, having watched the 21 videos, there was enough content and scenarios to where I can now see the way in which Stewart is envisioning the use of a wiki in these areas of business. I still think that in some cases, another tool could be better, but I can definitely see a wiki working.
For someone new to wikis, skip the magazine article and go straight to the blog and the videos that cover subjects such as, Wiki vs. Email, Run a Pilot, Don't Rush It, Better Meetings, Project Management, and Wiki vs Content Management System.
For a consultant, or someone knowledgeable in wikis, the videos provide guidance that will help get a wiki implemented and accepted within an organization or portion of a business. Mader's web site provides some testimonials, guides, and case studies to help.
There's more study to be done to get current on wikis, and Grow Your Wiki is a good launching point.
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