Would+Your+Business+Benefit+from+a+Wiki?

In the Allbusiness.com article, [|“Would Your Business Benefit from a Wiki?”] the author states that Wikis can be beneficial for businesses because they can provide a good web site content management system and a great instrument for internal documentation and project flow. The author also states a difficulty in using Wikis, as well as advice on what Wiki software to use.


 * Benefits of Wikis in Business** (Categories from Allbusiness.com)


 * 1. Wikis can be a good web site content management system**

For bigger businesses, it could be beneficial to allow customers to edit select sections on a company Wiki. This can help to foster brand loyalty, good feelings, and a sense of community among users. The author suggests that these Wikis should be monitored and maintained carefully.


 * 2. Wikis as an instrument for internal documentation and project flow**

Wikis can be used to manage internal documentation and project flow in a business. Wikis today are a single master document that everyone that has access can edit and view. This means that there no longer has to be several versions of a document in several different places, with a Wiki acting as a single document that everyone can use. The Wiki can be a sophisticated and easy to use filing system for a small office that costs a fraction of maintaining a complex computer network. Previous versions of Wiki pages can be viewed with the click of a mouse. Because of this single-document function, Wikis can encourage teamwork and decrease redundancies and repetition in documentation, acting as an efficient interoffice communication tool.


 * 3. Wikis can increase your personal status in the company** (Mateo, Brighthub)

Mateo's Brighthub blog entry titled [|Three Employee Benefits to Corporate Wikis] states that Wikis can lead to positive exposure within a company if you are adding relevant and useful information. Management can easily see who is contributing what in a Wiki, which can lead to increased status, positive performance reviews, and internal promotions.

Based on an article from KeyContent.org entitled //"Wiki-fying docs: Is using customer-accessible Wikis for end-user documentation gaining momentum ?"// about Wikis and consumers, businesses should evaluate a variety of information before deciding if a customer assessable Wiki is the direction to go in. The article suggests answering questions such as how participative the business wants customers to be, how important quality and reliability is, what the plan will be for incorporating other documentation, forums, and information databases, how will the Wiki be maintained, what languages will the Wiki be in, who owns the content, and what types of media can be added. Click [|here] to read more on the questions that should be answered before making a decision.


 * Drawbacks of Wikis for Business** (Allbusiness.com)

1. **Wikis require active use from participants in order to be effective**

The author states that Wikis “need time to mature”, stating that the more users and participants in the Wiki there are, “the more valuable they become as interoffice communications tools and archiving systems”(allbusiness 2011).

A Wiki will require frequent monitoring and maintenance. An unorganized Wiki can be incredibly frustrating. Over time, as technology evolves, the wiki will need updated. [|Cristoph Treude], Ph.D. candidate in computer science, notes that depending on the size of the wiki, this continuous maintenance can be costly and time consuming.
 * 2. Wikis need to be managed and monitored**

Sources: Mateo. //Three Employee Benefits to Corporate Wikis.// edited by Linda Richter. Brighthub.com. 3 3 April 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2011. Treude, Cristoph. "What We Know About Web 2.0 in Software Engineering - Part 1: Wikis, Blogs, and Microblogs." Christoph Treude. 17 May 2011. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. //Would Your Business Benefit from a Wiki? // Allbusiness.com. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. Kent, B., Albing, B., Gentle, A., & Sapir, R. Wiki-fying docs: Is using customer-accessible Wikis for end-user documentation gaining momentum? zotero://attachment/99/