Unit Three: My Experiences with a Wiki

A wiki is defined as a collective intelligence tool that enables collaborative editing of documents on the web. While a wiki is believed to be a useful tool for the classroom and student collaboration, I imagine it serves equally as useful in the business environment.  According to an article in InformationWeek Software, a wiki has four main features:

• A simple (and free) way to build and manage content
• Support hyperlinks and has simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross links between internal pages on the fly
• Accessibility from everywhere without any software installation (just a browser)
• Easy to track and constantly up-to-date

During my undergraduate career I had the pleasure of participating in many classes pertaining to digital rhetoric--involving the combination of classwork,  language and technology.  Because of these courses, I also was able to participate in many collaborative wikis, which mostly involved classmate introductions and group collaborations.  Not only does a wiki allow for collaboration among group members, it can also act as a drop box or repository type thing for different resources--i.e. pertinent articles, coursework, or anything else that relates to the course content.  All of the course information can be put on a wiki as well, including documents such as: syllabus, points of note, and announcements.  A sample of a wiki page I created utilizing WikiSpaces as a college sophomore is pictured below:

The layout of a wiki is usually clean and crisp and easy to use.  A student is also able to utilize basic html (such as linking to outer websites and uploading images), which is essential in the day of online resumes and digital portfolios. 

While increasing the student understanding of wiki operations is essential, I also recognize the importance of a wiki in a potential business or corporate environment.  Using a wiki in the business sector would enable users to gather and share information, foster information flow within the organization and allow equal collaboration and access to resources and ideas.  I know first-hand what a problem communication can become among various departments; having a general wiki for the entire corporation would help eliminate those holes in the miscommunication.

Works Cited

Foux, G. (2005, December 17). Wikis: Enabling Effective Knowledge Sharing Across the Organization - . InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs. Retrieved July 21, 2013, from http://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/wikis-enabling-effective-knowledge-shari/175003662