Got wiki?
posted by Jeff Moriarty on March 13, 2007
If you have ever pondered (or would consider pondering) establishing an internal corporate wiki, check out BusinessWeek Online’s CEO Guide on the topic. I’m not just shilling it because Josh Bancroft and I were quoted, but because it has an excellent slice of reasons to consider an internal wiki deployment.
Our internal wiki, Intelpedia, got moving as a grass roots effort by several passionate employees. It snowballed as people found it, tried it, loved it, and then used it in all sorts of fascinating ways. It has helped break down internal communication walls, helped combat bureaucracy, and helped foster collaboration and innovation across groups that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise. It is fascinating to watch it evolve internally, outside of the normal “IT Technology Implementation Plans”.
If this topic is of interest, I also suggest this interview on the topic of Wikinomics that I recommend.
Anyone else attempted an internal wiki deployment? I’d love to hear how it went.
Comments (4)
tagged: corporate, innovation, Web 2.0, wiki, wikinomics
Comments
Mar 14 | Doug Karr said:
I forgot - thanks for the reference!
Mar 18 | Kevin Mazzone said:
Last semester I took a class at Syracuse University where we used a Wiki for class collaboration on a security topics and research. It worked very well and helped to spread and foster ideas much like Intelpedia does.
Mar 23 | PrezWeezy said:
We use Sharepoint at several customers (all of our customers are Small Businesses and use Small Business Server) and some of them they would loose email before they would let go of thier sharepoint site. It is especialy useful for companies with multiple locations. It’s a great tool for business.
Apr 19 | Willowbottom said:
In my opinion, the success of any tool (such as a Wiki) depends primarily on two factors: (1) what problem is it trying to fix and is it the appropriate tool for fixing that problem? and (2) the flexibility and willingness of the organization to adopt the tool.
I’ve led the installation/development team for several Wikis for internal IT groups. We’ve even done things that you technically shouldn’t do with Wikis, like lock them down to require two-factor auth. in order to edit/view (which sort of flies in the face of the goal of Wikis to promote open collaboration).
Some groups have adopted Wikis very well and pages are consistently edited. The Wikis in these cases have promoted collaboration, information sharing, personal responsibility for information quality, etc. A perfect success story. These groups tended to be comprised of mainly engineers and administrative assistants — in particular, people who took a lot of pride in their experiences and knowledge/accomplishments.
I’ve also implemented Wikis for groups (generally project managers who by trade seem to be jacks of all but masters of none) where it’s not been as successful. In these instances, the survival of the Wiki dependent upon 1-4 designated content developers to keep data current. In these cases, the Wiki has been relagated to something no better than a static Web site.
So, Wikis are great tools but, like any tool, it alone won’t solve problems unless the culture is prepared to support and adopt it.