Yet another wiki: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:32, 3 December 2011

Do an internet search for a wiki on a particular topic, e.g. permaculture wiki Google search) or sustainability wiki (Google search) and scroll past the Wikipedia articles, and you'll see how many competing wiki sites there are. But when you click on them, most will be disappointing, a few will be interesting, and only the occasional site will be a fantastic resource.

Most wikis are dormant, and some are spammed. A handful have a small amount of activity, and a very small number are vibrant, with an active community creating a growing knowledge resource.

Each site represents an island, a small isolated community and a fragmented knowledge base. Why is this? Because making a successful wiki is hard.

What's a better approach? Radical collaboration. How do we do this for wikis? Practice Wiki synergy and make the hard decisions that need to be made. It's possible to have an impact, and have a rewarding experience working with a thriving wiki community - but it needs the right strategy.

The difficult but perhaps most important part of this may be to stop and ask what the goal is. If the goal is for your particular vision (sustainability, development, or some subset of that) then the outcomes are more important than the brand name on the site, and more important than who is perceived as the "leader" of the effort.

Deeper analysis

See green wikis for an introduction to the many wikis about sustainability.

See Green wikis and development wikis for details and figures. (Some of the data dates back to 2008/2009, but the general patterns are still relevant). The table can be sorted by levels of activity, numbers of pages and other criteria by clicking on the headers.

External links

WikiIndex - a wiki that lists thousands of wikis

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-Do an internet search for a wiki on a particular topic, e.g. ''[[permaculture wiki]]'' or ''[[sustainability wiki]]'' and you'll see how many sites there are. But when you click on them, most will be disappointing, a few will be interesting, and the occasional site will be a fantastic resource.
+Do an internet search for a wiki on a particular topic, e.g. ''[[permaculture wiki]]'' [http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=permaculture+wiki Google search]) or ''[[sustainability wiki]]'' ([http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&q=sustainabilty+wiki Google search]) and scroll past the Wikipedia articles, and you'll see how many competing wiki sites there are. But when you click on them, most will be disappointing, a few will be interesting, and only the occasional site will be a fantastic resource.
-However, most wikis are dormant, while yet others are spammed. A handful have a small amount of activity, and a very small number are vibrant, with an active community creating a growing knowledge resource.
+Most wikis are dormant, and some are spammed. A handful have a small amount of activity, and a very small number are vibrant, with an active community creating a growing knowledge resource.
-Each site represents an island, a small isolated community and a fragmented knowledge base.
+Each site represents an island, a small isolated community and a fragmented knowledge base. Why is this? Because '''[[making a successful wiki is hard]]'''.
-Why is this? Because [[making a successful wiki is hard]].
+What's a better approach? [[Radical collaboration]]. How do we do this for wikis? Practice '''[[Wiki synergy]]''' and make the hard decisions that need to be made. It's possible to have an impact, and have a rewarding experience working with a thriving wiki community - but it needs the right strategy.
-What's a better approach? [[Radical collaboration]]. How do we do this for wikis? Practice '''[[Wiki synergy]]'''.
+The difficult but perhaps most important part of this may be to stop and ask what the goal is. If the goal is for your particular vision ([[sustainability]], [[development]], or some subset of that) then the outcomes are more important than the brand name on the site, and more important than who is perceived as the "leader" of the effort.
 == Deeper analysis ==
-See [[Green wikis and development wikis]]. The table can be sorted by levels of activity, numbers of pages and other criteria by clicking on the headers.
+See [[green wikis]] for an introduction to the many wikis about sustainability.
+See [[Green wikis and development wikis]] for details and figures. (Some of the data dates back to 2008/2009, but the general patterns are still relevant). The table can be sorted by levels of activity, numbers of pages and other criteria by clicking on the headers.
 == See also ==