Corporate Wikis: Sites, Sources, and a Summit

[Gerry Mckiernan]

Corporate Wikis: Sites, Sources, and a Summit 

Colleagues/

As a result of a (somewhat) comprehensive literature and Google review, I've identified a number of highly relevant and (potentially significant) articles relating to Corporate Wikis (wikis in general). Among the major Sites/Sources/Summit I've discovered include

_Sites_

Jot Spot [http://www.jotspot.com ] "The Application Wiki"
This commercial wiki software company has an excellent categorized listing of the application and uses of its product/service (http://www.jotspot.com/uses/index.php)

Socialtext  [ http://www.socialtext.com ] "Enterprise Social Software" 
Socialtext provides a list of select customers and their particular uses 
[http://www.socialtext.com/customers/ ]. These include Disney, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Informative, USC Annenberg Center, Ziff Davis Media, Stata Labs, Kodak, Soar Technology, Institute for the Future, Zipp, Global Business Network, International Design Consultancy, Q Ltd., O'Reilly,  and PC Forum.

TWiki (http://www.twiki.org/), a wiki technology used in variety of corporate intranets, also provides a link to select companies that have used the software /  system, with mention of their specific uses
[ http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Main/TWikiSuccessStories ]. 


Switch Wiki 

SwitchWiki [http://www.worldwidewiki.net/wiki/SwitchWiki] claims to be comprehensive in coverage of public wikis ("SwitchWiki is currently a list of every public wiki").  As you will discover, it covers a variety of general, particular, peculiar, and idiosyncratic topics. As noted, "Ideally, each wiki has its own page here for reviews and discussions of the content and/or software used by that wiki."


The SwitchWiki also includes a directory of wikis by wiki engine 
[ http://www.worldwidewiki.net/wiki/SwitchWikiWikiDirectories ]


c2.com

Among the key resources are those available from Ward Cunningham's c2.com site [Cunningham is the FatherOfTheWiki]:
External links
*	Wiki engines (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiEngines) 
*	How to start a Wiki (http://wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_science_HowToStartAWiki) (on Wikibooks) 
*	Wiki:WikiClient 
*	Mac Wiki software (http://versiontracker.com/mp/new_search.m?productDB=mac&mode=Quick&OS_Filter=MacOSX&search=wiki&x=12&y=14) 
*	How to choose a Wiki (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ChoosingaWiki) 
*	Top ten wiki engines (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TopTenWikiEngines)

Of course one can not and should not overlook the resources about EverthingWiki from the Wikipedia 
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ]
For example, one of the best sources for information about wiki engines is the Wiki Software entry  
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_software ] in the Wikipedia  and its list and links to external resources (see bottom of the page) .

_Sources_

Espen Andersen, Using Wikis in a Corporate Context, Draft, November 5, 2004
[ http://www.espen.com/papers/EA-CorpWiki-v1.00.pdf ]

Brenda Chawner and Paul H. Lewis,
"WikiWikiwebs: New Ways of Interacting in a Web Environment," Handout from LITA Forum, St. Louis, Missouri, October 7-10, 2004
[ http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/litaevents/2004Forum/CS_WikiWikiWebs.pdf ]


Bo Leuf  and Ward Cunningham and, _The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web _.  Boston: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001 .
[ http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheWikiWay ]

A book about wiki technology, providing both a hands-on discussion on running and using wikis and well-founded discussions of the basics of wiki design (such as how much formatting to allow, and how much security to provide). It also includes an analysis of the source code of QuickiWiki, which is included with the book. 

Chapter 4, "Using Wiki", is available in PDF format at http://www.leuf.net/wiki/files/WikiWay_04.pdf.


Jonathan Davies, Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki Based Collaboration,
University of York Computer Science Project, Sept 2004
[ http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~kimble/teaching/students/Jonathan_Davies/ wiki_collaboration_and_brainstorming.pdf ]

David Mattison, "Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool,"  Searcher 11 (4) (April 2003): 32-48.
[ http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr03/mattison.shtml ]

_Summit_

_Corporate Weblog and Wiki Summit:
Implementing Emerging Business Tools to Streamline Enterprise Project Efficiency_ February 1 - 2, 2005 *  The Miami Intercontinental Hotel, Miami, FL
[ http://www.iqpc.com.au/iowa-robot/singlecell.html?topic=233&event=6089 ]

BTW: Note the Registration Fee [There Goes My Beer Budget [:-)]

I plan to synthesize the results of my search (as well as responses to my posting(s)) on Corporate Wikis) into a review article over the coming months for one of my favorite e-zines ; look for it on your local eStands next Spring  [:-)

Regards,

/Gerry 

GerryMcKiernan
InCorporatedLibrarian
IowaStateUniversity 
AmesIA50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

"NeverUnderEstimateThePowerOfTheMany"

P.S. My next comprehensive reviews will examine Wikis in Education, and Wikis in Government 
[Stay Tuned for  Future Postings {;-))]