Chapter 8
Safko, The Social Media Bible
What are the opportunities to use wikis for businesses or organizations who need to market themselves, their products, or their services?
Participating in existing wikis: This is probably how most institutions would be involved. Any organization that wants to monitor or influence what is being written about it on the internet should be looking for wikis in which is it mentioned, starting with Wikipedia or wikiHow.com. Each wiki is a potential opportunity.
Creating and operating a wiki: This option would probably be used most often for internal communication, especially if the organization’s members are geographically widely scattered. Possible uses include coordinating information about products or services; training; collaboration on documents of various kinds; sharing experiences and advice; or education, mostly b2b.
In the field where I work, Extension, internal wikis seem like the main potential use. Extension has people scattered throughout the state who need to share knowledge so they can teach it to the general public. A national organization of Extension professionals from many states, eXtension.org, makes extensive use of wikis around organized communities of practice to share the base of knowledge across a much larger area. And, as Safko points out, it can be done quickly because many people can contribute almost instantly.
Is there a use in Extension for a wiki aimed at our clientele? That’s a tougher question to answer. Extension markets itself as a reliable source of research-based information. We are the experts, and we have information that you need. We’ll share it with you. That’s not an exact fit for the more collaborative, synergistic wiki model. But wikis could potentially be very useful in gathering information about real-world experiences. Maybe the information is needed as part of a research project. Or maybe it would inject a dose of reality into knowledge that is based mainly in research, making it all the more useful to the public.
In large measure, the possibilities for Extension using wikis to interact with the public have yet to be explored.
I think it is an interesting question about Extension wikis - so if someone has a solution to a problem he/she could share it with others? Or a question or observation (a la Backyard Farmer)? I find the process of coordinating and posting on a wiki difficult - maybe if it was easier I would use it among my core audiences.
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