"A wiki, at its most efficient and most stunning, is not a category. It is not a technology. It is not a notebook. It is not a website. It is not a medium. It is not a community. It is not a place. Rather, it is the sum totality of everything, including all those things; and all those things centre around the dynamic of its essential parts and dimensions: community, content, code, network, atemporal, place."- MeatBall Wiki: WikiWay
In practical terms, people tend to use wiki for some combination all of the purposes stated above, and more.
| Large companies are using wikis for bottom-up, distributed knowledge management; small companies are using wikies for agile collaboration. The nature of a wiki as a website that can be edited by any member of a group lends itself toward collaborative uses. Wikis can be both a trigger for and an instrument of organizational change, providing a means of transforming rigid, siloed, hierarchies into more flexible, broadly communicative communities. In these instances, organizational change processes -- and the obstacles and means of overcoming obstacles to change -- are integral to the use of wikis as effective collaborative tools in the enterprise |
Some people use wiki software to co-create knowledge in a more publication-oriented format. Wikipedia is a popular example, organized around creating a free encyclopedia. People also use wiki to co-create Wiki Fiction. One early example is Exit Strategy by Douglas Rushkoff. Some people use wiki software to co-explore and expand on existing publications. Examples include Yochai Benkler's Wealth of Networks Wiki, Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace book update Code v.2, Neil Stephenson's Quicksilver Wiki. Most saliently, Using Wiki in Education is a wiki book. See Wikified Books for more info on Fiction and Non-Fiction applications of wiki software to books. |
| A resource of jointly created knowledge that is accessible, usable, and editable by any community member. |
Examples like Wiki The Presidency and Congresspedia are loosely based around the Wikipedia format (often using MediaWiki software), yet are purposed towards collaboratively documenting the politcal histories of the US president, and US Congress, respectively. These types of collaborative Wiki Knowledge Commons allow participants to create a Peer-Review and interlinked history, that can expose obscure facts, and clarify relationships between different pieces of information. Could Wikis Help Achieve Consensus on Edtech Policy? is one example of the kinds of experiments that are being proposed. Wiki Meetingand Living Agenda combine governance and decision procedures with wikis: "The Living Agenda is the collaborative Web document using IPA at the centre of any deliberative body (commitee, group or assembly) employing the Green Rules of Online Order and Procedure (GROOP) to meet its objectives." Pedagogy, Organizing, and Wiki Campaigns Wikia on public education Australian Bill of Rights Initiative wiki |
| In many instances of public and open wikis, people tend to organize around sets of Community Standards, or social rules that emerge from the group. Here are one community builder's tips on building a wiki community. |
| Wiki Theory Building allows you to collaborate with, and build upon everything in your Personal Knowledge Base. Not all wikis are centered around the purpose of Theory Building. But Theory Building with wiki software is a great way for anyone exploring or researching a subject to create and use wiki space to collaboratively explore and develop theories about anything. Wikis can be used for mindmapping. |
| An overview of successes and failures in using wiki software to jointly report news. And, emerging concepts of what wiki news reporting can be. |
| Wiki Theory Building affords people the ability to use wiki software as an open and commons-based platform to explore the future in a collaborative way. |
| The coming of online editable spreadsheets and collaborative data sharing. |
| Wikify blog content |
Page Last Updated: May 27 10:11am by Howard Rheingold