wikis

What is a wiki?
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Navigating Wikispaces
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Wikis for Community Service?
[|Digital Do-Gooding][| - Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 2, 2007]

What is the value of understanding how to navigate and use wikis for learning and professional practice?
In what's been dubbed the "wiki workplace," a growing number of organizations have begun shifting from traditional hierarchical structures to self-organized and collaborative networks, using wiki software—a basket of technologies that include wikis, blogs and other tools—to foster innovation across organizational and geographic boundaries. - [|Power in Numbers: How wiki software is reforming bloated bureaucracies and changing the face of communication] - Newsweek, August 6, 2007

The information and communication technologies that are transforming media, culture, and the economy are also reshaping how companies and employees function. New social computing tools such as wikis and blogs put unprecedented communication power in the hands of employees. - [|The Wiki Workplace] - Business Week, August 20, 2007

More thoughts on wikis . ..
[//From// //[|Power in Numbers: How wiki software is reforming bloated bureaucracies and changing the face of communication] - Newsweek, August 6, 2007//]

"Wikinomics" coauthor Don Tapscott says wikis have the potential to spawn new models for international problem solving and dialogue, increase transparency in government and open communication between citizens and policymakers.

"Collaborative software has become a very important part of how businesses will invent and innovate," says Ken Bisconti, IBM's vice president of messaging and collaboration software.

[|Q&A with Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales in Newsweek.]
Jimmy Wales: It’s just really exploding all over. In the early days of wikis, it was pretty much the tech geeks who were the adopters, but now we’re starting to see it more and more mainstream. Some of that has come about just because of the sheer popularity of Wikipedia, but the technology has also become a lot easier to use as well.
 * NEWSWEEK: How would you describe the development of wiki technology in recent months?**

When the people involved in writing the wiki have a clear and shared vision of what they’re trying to accomplish; if you have a simple, stated goal that everyone can understand. Otherwise, if you have a wiki whose purpose is too vague, it makes it really hard for volunteers to contribute.
 * When do wikis work the best?**

One of the great things a wiki does is allow for really quick collaboration—the name wiki comes from the Hawaiian word for quick. It’s also a really great way to feel around for consensus. The very nature of a wiki is a kind of mutually assured destruction, so if you’ve got something on there that even a very few percentage of people find irritating, they’re likely to come in and change it. So everything has to be worded in such a way that almost everyone would agree it’s reasonable, and if you can do that, then it survives. So for an organization like the United Nations [link to OV1206], which is charged with finding consensus in the world, the wiki seems like a great technology for them to try to use.
 * What can wikis provide that other forums don’t?**

It breaks down a lot of barriers and it’s a very quick and efficient way to get things done. I think at a lot of organizations people get very frustrated by the overhead of just getting things done, which is why we’ve seen the wiki blow up in the corporate world. It just sweeps away a lot of the nonsense.
 * What would you say is the lure of collaborative technology for use in corporate settings?**

You can’t expect to have a wiki if you also expect to be doing business as usual. A wiki is all about letting go of control, it’s a real free-form attitude. So if you’re an organization that’s accustomed to doing things by committee after long deliberations, well, that’s all going to change—but hopefully for the better
 * Should organizations worry about security as it relates to using wiki technology?**