Is it the age of wiki? Yes, and why not? It’s the age of every other piece of collaboration software. But to start a land rush we’ll need to come up with some pretty hip slang to describe this fairly unlovely, rubber-jointed piece of software.
The problem with wikis is they’re hard to grok. Everyone looks at the finished display product of Wikipedia, but not the process that creates it - in truth that would be like watching grass grow. With a wiki, you have to use one to love it, and even then you don’t have words for it.
We need to develop some hip slang for wiki usage, taken from the skateboard community ideally. Meanwhile the Tracksuit CEO has decided to jump right in and do it, setting up a family wiki so that he and his wife can coordinate their calendars, the better to raise their two young ‘uns.
And as for those words, try this video clip, you’ll be amazed at how much better you grasp the wiki when you watch the hands at work in Wikis in Plain English:
As a developer I’ve been involved in a variety of collaboration software for a decade. Between running the studio and running projects with clients, I’ve always been looking for the perfect module for collaboration. We’ve even created a few things ourselves, but the one-app-does-it-all solution will never need to happen, or now I so believe.
Instead, simply rewire the world, set up a vast global network with architecture and protocols already suited to collaboration, and then throw lots of specialized apps and online services out there so users can grab what they need when they need it.
Underneath my very superficial skim of the wiki world here, there lies a vast pool of theory and analysis about such things as collaboration software, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, tacit and explicit knowledge, structured and unstructured information - and a host of other memes and tags that I’m absolutely not getting into today. Over time I would like to explore these things in greater depth with you.
For now, enjoy the movie, and when the need arises grab a free wiki and get started - figure it out between you and your collaborators. And let me know how it goes.
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thetracksuitceo 06.29.07 at 8:39 am
It’s all so simple on the video but it does take some rewiring to get the hang of relying on it over email and google docs. The TrackSuit family will start to see the benefits of the family wiki soon, I know it!