Wikis

The year is started and once the first part of my Master Thesis is written, I do a pause to write a brief post about Wikis. I'm a strong supporter of Wikis. Not only of the servers themselves but also of Wiki Philosophy: Collaboration, Openness, Control... Control? Yes, Control, I really think that the versioning system of Wikis is very powerful and enables control about what is published, when and by whom. Would be Wikipedia possible without editorial control?
I have found an interesting whitepaper from a site that talks about Wikis. Although it is a commercial Whitepaper I found it quite interesting. Particularly some parts like these excerpts:

Though the type of wiki employed may differ from company to company, the types of tasks for which wikis are used are basically the same. Specifically, daytoday usage of the application typically falls into the following three categories:

Project Management

• Wikis may be used as a central repository for capturing constantly updated product features and specifications
• Wikis may provide a central repository for simple issue tracking and resolution
• The iterative nature of wikis allow team members to track thedevelopment history of projects over time
  

Collaboration

• Internally, wikis allow simple text-based collaboration on internal documents such as company guidelines, reports, and productspecifications
• Externally, wikis are useful for collaboration with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders on key business documents and ongoing projects
  

Knowledge Management

• Because wikis can be easily updated by anyone in the organization, wide-ranging company documents, such as guidelines and FAQs are more easily kept accurate and up-to-date

Actually in the R&D department of my company is used for the 3 purposes. Interisting also these comments about evaluating the value of Wikis in the enterprise, that i find true but quite dangerous ;-)

In assessing the potential impact of wikis, one might do well to take a lesson
from the early days of e-mail. Although many tried to detail the cost savings
associated with e-mail by measuring the related reductions in postage, increases
in worker productivity, and various other metrics, these estimates paled in
comparison to the actual value brought by e-mail itself. This major discrepancy
occurred primarily because e-mail ultimately changed the way people worked,
not just how they exchanged documents.

You can find the whole document here.