Wiki as Forum, FAQ, HTML Editor, XML Editor, or CMS?

A wiki can be a Frequently Asked Questions repository, much like the knowledge bases in their heyday in the late 80s. My favorite line from the blog entry has to be its closer: 'It's about a different way of thinking around how to interact with the community.' And that is what I have explored with my wiki presentation, about how to build community with a wiki and be an active member of that community. But what are other uses of the wiki?

Gentle, Anne. Just Write Click (2007). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Wikis

A Few Surprises in Using a Wiki for Documentation

Recently I’ve been working on a simple calendar project that uses a wiki for documentation. Although I’ve heard a lot about using wikis for documentation, and have even used them in the past, I ran into a few surprises this time.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Wikis

Wikis and the Holy Grail of Content Independence

The concept of having control over your help content, to update it at any time, is what I’m calling content independence. Establishing content independence in your publishing environment may be a battle that can take years. For example, at a previous job, it took five years to finally convince architecture that we needed and deserved our own independent folder on a production server. In my current situation, I’ve pursued publishing routes in infrastructure that would enable on-the-fly updating, but for two years in a row I’ve come up empty-handed. With wikis, I think I’ve finally found the holy grail of content independence.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Wikis

Consistency and Community-Generated Content

I’ve been collecting examples of wildly inconsistent writing lately. I’m not sure why these have stuck out to me, but when I think of book sprints and community writing events, consistency is an important, though sometimes difficult, goal and outcome.

Gentle, Anne and Janet Swisher. Just Write Click (2009). Articles>Documentation>Style Guides>Wikis

User-Generated Content

Let’s say that you’re reading a news story about a particular area of geographic conflict and you decide to investigate further. Without an encyclopedia available, as fewer and fewer of us seem to have them on hand these days, you quickly check out your handy online references. To your surprise, the article on this disputed feature seems to be an amalgamation of strongly differing opinions and ideologies, to the point where the article has been locked down from further editing. Such is the nature of the brave new world of user-generated content, where a content publisher forges a careful alliance of sorts with a wide range of contributors across very diverse locales and cultures. Depending on the intended purpose of the provided content, the end result can take on a life of its own, as it becomes the focal point for a silent yet fervent battle over “fact” and “truth” from divergent viewpoints.

Edwards, Tom. TC World (2009). Articles>Content Management>Wikis>Social Networking

Wikis in the Workplace: a Practical Introduction

The wiki crops up in many companies' internal discussions about process improvements and efficient collaboration, but it is often shot down because so few people have exposure to good models of what a really successful business wiki can do. Ars is here to help with a practical introduction based on real-world examples.

Porter, Alan J. Ars Technica (2009). Articles>Content Management>Workplace>Wikis

Six Reasons Why Your Wiki Isn’t Working 

Wikis are a great way to create and publish documentation online, but there are many wikis that haven’t worked. They comprise just a few pages of incomplete, out of date information. Why is that? Why do some wikis work and others just fail? Here are six key reasons.

Pratt, Ellis. Cherryleaf (2009). Articles>Content Management>Wikis>Social Networking

Using a Wiki for Technical Documentation   

Is it possible to use a wiki for technical documentation? Yes, most definitely. I started working on a wiki two years ago, with no prior experience of wikis (apart from the occasional encounter with Wikipedia) but with plentiful experience of technical writing. I’ve learned a lot and I’d like to pass on some tips to you too.

Maddox, Sarah. Southern Communicator (2009). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Wikis

Online Anonymous Rating Sites: Empowering Individual Voices 

Rating sites empower people to make better choices. Obviously they are subject to abuse (either from the competition, from the the slandered source, or from biased friends). But even in the possible exaggerations from the participants, the ratings raise awareness of issues that you might otherwise not carefully examine.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2007). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Wikis