How To Use Wikis For Business

Ezra Goodnoe
http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=167600331

Upon their arrival and a few years after, Wikis were seen as irrelevant websites filled with faulty information that anyone could alter or edit. Since then, they have completely changed and are now taken seriously and being used regularly. Businesses have adopted Wikis and found that they are much easier and convenient to use when managing documents than email, databases, or spreadsheets.

Though the first trials of wiki use in businesses were not very successful, in recent years they have become widely accepted and can now be controlled and managed effectively. Along with the simplicity of creating and updating a wiki, cost effectiveness is another advantage. They are drastically less expensive than enterprise applications needed to create websites and manage documents. Drastically meaning sometimes free.

Wikis also give multiple people the chance to interact and take part in certain parts of a business because of it ease of operation. Information that businesses have put on the web may have been easily accessed but only a select few who were computer savvy and knew how to manage web material were able to edit or update it. Now, anyone who can basically run a simple word processing application can use the wiki to update relevant information and make changes that could benefit the business, but only if they are given access of course.

Though the majority of business wikis are created by smaller businesses, there are many well known corporations, such as Disney and Kodak, who have used them successfully and continue to do so. All it takes is a matter of time for new technologies to be taken advantage of and used to their full potential, wikis being a prime example. It is great to see more and more technological advances within businesses because eventually, everything will revolve around the web somehow. Wikis, blogs, and social networks have proven that. Bring on Web 3.0.