Thoughts on Wikis

Wikis seem to me, to be ideal for communicating information. As Schiff points out, they are “perfectly configured to be current”. The ease of update and opportunity for multiple authoring and editing seem to make wikis an ideal place to publish information that needs to be current or come from various sources.

Before delving into this week’s information, I was really only familiar with the idea of using a wiki as it applied to collaborative work between employees working on a common project. I had no idea it was such an easy thing to set up and start using…I am surprised that it is not more commonly used, but I would venture a guess that most people are simply not aware of the possibilities.

I think it is certainly interesting to note Lamb’s statement that wikis are ego-less. This has interesting implications in our copyright-intense/intellectual-property world.

Wandering just a bit off topic....I am interested in reading this book:

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Has anyone read it? Thoughts? Is it any good? Relevant?

The authors have even created a wiki called The Wikinomics Playbook in the hope that “this book will transcend its physical form to become a living, real-time, collaborative document, co-created by leading thinkers.”* Their viewpoint is definitely corporate, however, they are tapping into the social software phenomenon…interesting. I wonder if some of their business ideas would translate well to Not-for-Profits too...?

* quoted from “Introduction to the Book” from http://www.wikinomics.com/book/