When and Why to Wiki

What's a wiki, you may be asking? Well, according to Wikipedia, a wiki is a website that enables any authorized user to add, edit or comment on content very easily. Wikipedia is, in fact, a wiki encyclopedia comprised of entries submitted, revised, and commented on by readers.

Wikis are just pushing into the online communications forefront, and I've been following he wiki evolution and was thrilled to see a recent NetSquared interview with Adam Frey, of Wikispaces (a web hosting service) where he talks a bit about when nonprofits should use wikis:

• Wikis are first and foremost about content.
• When a group's goal is to create, edit, or manage content, wikis are great tools. Program participants working together on essays, a marketing team editing an organization's messages, or a board maintaining schedules and attendee lists are good examples of where wikis will work for nonprofits.
• If a group wants a linear discussion, a blog or online discussion board is the right tool. Frey mentions that many groups need more than one tool. A nonprofit organizing a conference might use a wiki to maintain their FAQ in collaboration with their conference registrants, but also use a bulletin board for pre-conference discussion on key topics, and a blog to publish updates on speakers and scheduling.

Wikis are up and coming, but there aren't too many nonprofit models for me to point you to yet. I'll flag them when I see them. Meanwhile, keep wikis in mine as one of your many communiations channels.

Comments

[Franziska]

More interesting stuff on how and why to Wiki on NetSquared:
http://www.netsquared.org/frey
and
Librarysuccess, a best practices wiki:
http://www.netsquared.org/library-success-a-best-practices-wiki
and the quite amazing Never Again International nonprofit that uses a wiki and lots of other Web2.0 tools.
http://www.netsquared.org/never-again-international