A successful wiki is a site to behold. It is a living, breathing repository of knowledge that is tended to and expanded by its users. Many wikis will never see that fate, instead living out their lives long on potential but short on success. The largest culprits for this fate are often the planners themselves, having gotten caught up in the hype and not touching down to earth before the launch.
A wiki, like any other user supported application, seeks to obtain a “critical mass” in order to be a successful collaboration. That critical mass is a balance between what information users get out of visiting it, and what they are willing to leave behind.
Here are some of the guidelines for getting beyond the buzzword and into the productivity.
Focused Subject Matter
A wiki needs to be about something. Simply instituting a wiki for “our office” or some other generalized idea that lacks a specific function is not going to be successful. Without a specific purpose a wiki is just a buzzword. Like all Web 2.0 material a wiki is an application, not a website. It is in effect a computer program that allows people to come together and easily create a repository of knowledge about a subject.
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