Social Software - An Enterprise Perspective - Part 1: SWOT Analysis of Wikis

One of the most common tools beside blogs in the development of an Enterprise 2.0- Environment are wikis.

History & Definition

The term wiki originally comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki wiki”, which simply means fast. In 1995 Ward Cunningham made it possible through the development of wikis to create and edit websites, one of the basic principles of the World Wide Web.

Wikis allow the easy creation and editing of interlinked web pages using a simple text editor. They are often used to create collaborative websites as in e.g. corporate intranets and especially knowledge management systems. For deeper insights on wikis in general, Wikipedia might be a good start for reading.

Types of Wikis

• Social Wikis allow people to discuss and publish information about subjects of interest. An example may be a wiki about photography consisting of pages written by people who are photographers and wish to share their experiences.
• Educational Wikis serve the purpose of educating people through an open and collaborative publication format. Wikipedia is the most well known of these types, supplying information for free to any enquiries.
• Corporate Wikis are a useful format for groups or teams that work together in collaborative environments or are starting new projects. Such team or group wikis can be used to collaboratively gather and share expert knowledge about a certain topic.

Operational Areas

Today, many or most companies use wikis for the creation of their knowledge base, for project management issues as well as part of the company’s e-learning activities. But wikis are as well used as content management systems where internal news, address books, process documentation or guidelines are published. This way corporate wikis can work as a hub in an intranet 2.0.

But what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of corporate based wikis?

SWOT Analysis

The following SWOT analysis shows the most important facts of wikis in a corporate environment.

View more presentations from enterprisezweinull.

Further Readings

For a more technical view on advantages & disadvantages of wikis you can take a look here

• Die wichtigsten Vorteile von Wikis 
• Die wichtigsten Nachteile von Wikis
• Wiki SWOT Analysis
• Edit Wiki Pages

If you want to find out more about strengths & weaknesses of wikis in the project management area

• Enterprise Wikis im Projektmanagement - Stärken 
• Enterprise Wikis im Projektmanagement - Schwächen
• Best Practice Paper - To Wiki or not to Wiki
• 10 Erfolgsfaktoren für die Einführung von internen Wikis

or if you want to find out more about wikis & project management in general

• 111 Reasons why enterprise needs wiki 
• Using wikis as a project management tool 
• Using Wikis for Project Management 
• Project Management 2.0 – The Ultimate Benefits Of The New Approach To Project Management

References

• Wikipedia - “Wiki” Als Entwurf speichern
• Types of Wikis 

written by Tobias Brenner & Milos Vujnovic