A Wiki is server-based software that enables any person to create and edit published content using only their browser.
Wiki’s supports basic HTML markup including hyperlinks to other documents in the Wiki as well as to locations within and outside of the Intranet. Most Wiki’s provide a Wiki markup language and the best Wiki’s provide WYSIWYG technology, so adding content is as simple as creating a Word document.
Wiki supports centralization and presentation of corporate data source documents in a variety of formats including spreadsheets, word processing documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, e-mail files, etc. Wikis can also be configured to access and display data from databases.
While Wikipedia, the world’s largest user-maintained online encyclopedia, is a great example of a Wiki, the use in business for collaboration on a project goes far beyond simple collaboration on definition of terms.
Wiki Benefits
- Permits the rapid exchange of information between departments, teams and diverse members of the organization.
- Low technical barrier to usage promotes collaboration across users with varying technical skill sets.
- Supports collaboratively building sales presentations, documentation, knowledge bases, etc.
- Agenda and meeting management.
- Managing after action reports/lessons learned.
- Involves the entire organization in helping to build and maintain the corporate knowledge base.
Corporate Considerations
Wiki’s make a great platform for creating a corporate intranet. It is however very important to decide how the wiki can and should be used. Below is a beginning list of questions to consider:
- Is security needed?
- Do you want the credentials to be based on another application such as Active Directory?
- What types of content do you want the wiki to contain?
- What policies must be in place to ensure the content meets company standards and regulations?
- Will the Wiki be used as a company Knowledge Base?
- If so is there search criteria the wiki’s search engine must be able to meet?
- What is the structure, layout or information architecture of the wiki to best facilitate finding corporate knowledge?
- Are there Sarbanes Oxley, HIPPA or other regulations that must be followed when adding data to the wiki.
- It the wiki is used to create or host project documentation what are the procedures for editing project information?
- How should project teams communicate on a project with the wiki?
- If the wiki is used as the foundation for the entire intranet then what kind of corporate pages need to be developed and who will maintain them?
- What department will be responsible for monitoring the wiki and cleaning up old, dirty, bad, or illegal data?
The above list of questions is far from complete but it’s a start and should help you start thinking along the right lines if you’re interested in implementing a wiki in your company.
