BusinessWeek tells CEOs about wikis

In 2004 when I introduced a hosted wiki as an experiment to the knowledge department of a law firm, adoption was almost instant. I primed it with a top level structure reflecting the things that mattered to our team: People, Projects and Ideas. Within a week, two projects had decided that this was the best tool to use for project management and communication, somebody started compiling a list of useful technologies and vendors, others started sharing ideas and links to articles. Most took the opportunity to provide a richer profile of themselves than the intranet allowed. The wiki clearly filled a vacuum, somewhere between email and the document management system. Yet, a few were not interested and didn't participate.

In short, a typical wiki adoption story. But the typical story may be about to change.

Many wikis started as an experiment by a small team, then spread virally. Now, CXOs and the business press have started to notice the power of simple tools like wikis. The success of Wikipedia explains part of the fascination (imagine having your own corporate equivalent) and a number of case studies are becoming well known.

BusinessWeek just published a series of articles on wikis as part of their CEO guide to technology (main article). Last month, InformationWeek reported on Enterprise 2.0, explaining that it is about "a new architecture defined by easier, faster, and contextual organization of and access to information, expertise, and business contacts--whether co-workers, partners, or customers." Their survey found that while a third were using the new tools, most technology professionals remained wary.

As the scales tip, collaboration centric initiatives are graduating from skunkworks to management sponsored projects engaging those communities eager to participate. This increases the likelihood of broad internal adoption of powerful, enabling technologies like wikis.

Tags: wiki law firm collaboration