Using a Wiki for your organisation
Many people have heard of Wikipedia and use it as a reference tool or even to edit some of the copious pages available via Wikipedia. A Wikipedia uses Wiki technology which is a free technology that can be used for a myriad of tasks for your organisation saving time, costs and improving collaboration between volunteers and staff.
According to Wikipedia: “A Wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. For example, the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is one of the best-known Wikis. Wikis are used in businesses to provide affordable and effective intranets and for Knowledge Management.
Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.”
In summary, A Wiki is a web site that can be edited, added, removed and changed via a web browser.
Some organisations use Wikipedia to describe their organisations core values and history with links to other resources (on Wikipedia that support or utilize the organisation) in an effort to offer greater awareness and education to its readers. Other organisations utilize their own Wiki spaces from www.wikispaces.org to promote their organisation to the public or as a communications tool for themselves.
Wikispaces.org provides free sign up and 2gb of free space that allows you to decide who is allowed to view and edit material on your Wikispaces site. There are other commercial options available from Wikispaces.org.
For a tutorial and a tour of Wikispaces.org plase visit: http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introduction
Ideas to use a Wiki for your organisation include:
- Collaboration of team members, research, ideas
- Brain Storming
- Editing a document
- Schedules
- Plans
- Online Brochure that the community can edit/add to.
- Newsletter
- Community effort to add new materials to your knoweldgbase.
- Encourage members to contribute their own stories.
- Members of your wiki are notified each time a change is made to the Wiki.
- An alternative to a web site – cheaper, easier to update, free space.