Tags // Wikis
Wikis—a disruptive innovation
A good roundup of wikis used inside organizations. Interestingly, Gartner predicted that "a third of mainstream collaboration software products will support wiki-style interaction by 2006." [thanks Portals+KM]
wikis, innovation Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Making Wikis Work at Novell
Another write up on the use of wikis behind the firewall.
"Novell now uses wikis as a standard means to facilitate event planning and management. When there is a company event, a wiki page is generally set up to support it. Attendees can share information on travel logistics to coordinate flights, car rentals, hotels, etc, in a manner far more efficient than the need to have administrative support people send out multiple emails to all attendees. In addition, the agendas can be refined and the substantive conversations started prior to the actual meeting, making the face to face time much more productive. The wiki then provides a common space to continue the conversation after the meeting. Ray says that people cannot imagine going back to the older, pre-wiki days for event coordination."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Friday, June 02, 2006
Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom
An "innovate" journal article that explores how wikis could be ideal platforms to bridge the teacher-student gaps. I hope this wiki-craze in the classroom does not lead to "analysis-paralysis" as it has been the case for all new technology. Instead of beating the wiki concept to death by looking at all possible scholarly angles, I would rather expect to see a good case studies on how wikis are actually being used in the classroom, the current challenges they face and what can be done to overcome them. All of this should lead towards helping the teaching/learnign community do it better the next time around. We need to see forward-movement, not lateral-movement.
wikis Add tag Permalink | Friday, June 02, 2006
Wikiversity
Now, this is very interesting (via Gurteen):
"The purpose of the Wikiversity project is to build an electronic institution of learning that will be used to test the limits of the wiki model both for developing electronic learning resources as well as for teaching and for conducting research and publishing results (within a policy framework developed by the community)."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 15, 2006
What makes an enterprise wiki?
Here's an in-depth look at the components that make up an enterprise wiki. But I like this conclusion:
"Contrary to their reputation, Wikis are content management systems that can be managed. They simply take a different approach to content management by choosing to emphasize speed and flexibility rather than strict controls. In order to successfully implement a wiki software package you will need to look at workflow from a different perspective and be sure to select wiki software that provides the right level of content monitoring and access control for your organization."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, May 10, 2006
What are our students learning from the success of Wikipedia?
Insightful thoughts from David Weinberger on the state of education.
"What are our students learning from the success of Wikipedia? We hope they're learning that they can't be passive recipients of knowledge. But they're also learning that authority doesn't come only through chains of credentials; that we can get on the same page about what we know; that knowing involves be willing to back away from your beliefs at times; that knowledge is a social product, or at least heavily socially contextualized; that the willingness to admit fallibility is a greater indicator of truth than speaking in a confident tone of voice; that knowledge lives in conversation, not in the heads of experts; that certain people who do not need to be named are just impossible."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Everyone’s an Editor as Wiki Fever Spreads to Shopping Sites
NY Times reports on yet another world-wide craze: wikification. Now, shopping sites are trying using the sense-and-respond model of the new Web to learn if people are going to adopt it or not.
"Millions of people have lent their wisdom — or their perceived wisdom, at least — to Wikipedia's online articles, helping to make it one of the more talked-about Web sites in recent years. Now Amazon.com and the people who built the online advertising pioneer DoubleClick are hoping millions more will wax authoritative about toasters, fondue pots and lawn mowers."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Monday, April 24, 2006
Wealth of Networks, now on a wiki
Yochai Benkler of Yale Law school is giving access to all chapters of his new book, The Wealth of Networks, as PDF downloads, and has started a wiki to discuss and extend the book."The basic idea is to make this Wiki a place where people who read the book can do at least four things. First, collaborate on writing a summary of the ideas and claims of the book, as an initial point of entry. Second, provide an easy platform through which to access underlying research materials: both those used in the book's notes, and more importantly, resources that are useful for further research, refinement, and updating. Third, the Wiki should be a place where participants can describe, link to, and analyze examples of the phenomena the book describes."
wikis Add tag Permalink | Tuesday, April 18, 2006
A Disaster Map ‘Wiki’ Is Born
I guess it's true: frustration is the spark for all invention. Scipionus.com, a giant website collecting Katrina related information on top of Google Maps, is the brainchild of Jonathan Mendez, a 24-year-old computer programmer living in Austin, Texas. Mendez says he grew frustrated combing message boards trying to find out if his family home -- the one his parents and brother had just fled from -- had been destroyed. This Wired article has more on Scipionus.
wikis Add tag Permalink | Monday, September 05, 2005
Something Wiki This Way Comes
Good to see grassroots technology like the Wiki finding its way into businesses: "Peter Thoeny, creator of TWiki, a leading open-source wiki program, says at least 35,000 people have downloaded TWiki since 2001. Two-thirds of his programs are going into businesses -- Walt Disney, SAP, and Motorola among them."wikis Add tag Permalink | Monday, May 31, 2004
IA wiki: UserScenarios Scenarios are
IA wiki: UserScenariosScenarios are stories in which the product being designed is placed within the lives of its intended users. People, software, hardware and the interaction that binds them together constitute the typical cast of characters for scenarios. These players are placed in a physical setting and given a role within the story of the products use.