Ross Mayfield heads SocialText, a social software firm best know for its wiki products. We asked his views about these innovative collaborative tools.
There is lots in the press today about wikis. What are they and why are they cool?
A wiki is the simplest way for a group to create a website. Think of it as a multi-dimensional whiteboard that makes links easier than any other tool. Wiki Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian, something Ward Cunningham (disclosure: Socialtext Advisor) noted while sitting in the Honolulu airport and thinking of what to call his invention back in 1995. Wikis are deceptively simple, yet extremely flexible. Just as weblogs make the web writable, wikis make the web editable. Since anyone can “Edit this Page” without knowing HTML, it reduces the barriers to contribution while letting users create their own information architecture.
Wikis are constantly in motion and reflect the current shared understanding of the group. At scale you would think this form of collaborative editing couldn’t possibly work, but it is comparable in terms of quantity and quality to traditional editorial workflow. Even when put to the difficult task of having strangers agree on definitions. Giving editing rights to everyone means you have to give up some control and identity as an author, but this actually fosters trust, particularly within organizations.
They are also cool because they are the antithesis of traditional enterprise software with its top-down design the imposes process, ontology and structure upon users. By giving users the power to create, link and form groups it serves the domain of business practice, the unstructured collaboration that leverages informal networks. A wiki can serve group activities quickly, so a project can begin with conversation and prototyping instead of waiting for a tool to be created or implemented. Work done in a wiki creates its own usable archive, rather than requiring a side-activity or having designated experts determine what is of value. The bottom-up approach also produces a dense link structure that has its own emergent patterns, with the best content and expertise rising to the top, to inform decisions based on what your organization actually knows.
We are familiar with Wikipedia, the (amazing) jointly-edited encyclopedia built on wiki technology. Are there other interesting public wikis?
The orignal WikiWikiWeb, MeatballWiki for meta-discussion about wikis, collaborative travel guide Wikitravel, SCO vs. IBM for trial coverage and the IA wiki on information architecture. Wikipedia also has some sister project such as Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote and Wikisource.
What are some useful ways that companies or organizations are using wikis internally?
Most of our Socialtext Workspace customers use us for project communication. There are lots of existing tools for project scheduling and coordination, but projects are about conversations. Having a persistent space for conversation, collaborative document editing, agendas, meeting notes, status reports and brainstorms accelerates project cycles while reducing operational risk within a searchable repository.
Some other interesting uses include knowledge sharing within R&D units, presidential campaign that uses us for decentralized news analysis, a department of a media organization that manages editorial, artwork and production within wiki and a software company that uses us for both managing offshore development and solution-oriented customer care.
While internal use is diverse and serves departments from M&A to R&D, some of the interesting uses are between organizations. Consulting teams manage their projects internally, but also create shared spaces with customers that are accessible with any web browser. ChordicInitatives.org uses Socialtext to support its community of practice.
Tell me about your company and products?
Socialtext is the Enterprise Social Software company. We have over 25 paying customers with some scaling over 400 users. We adapt lightweight web-native tools like wikis and weblogs for enterprise and event use.
Socialtext Workspace is our flagship solution for communication, collaboration and publishing. At the core, its a wiki, but also has tightly integrated weblog and email functionality that enables productive communication patterns and allows new users to contribute using the email interface they are accustomed to. It accels at easy group-forming, ease of use and low cost of ownership. Available as a hosted service or a pre-configured appliance, we offer a 30-day trial and a Starter Package for 5 users for one year at $995. Socialtext Workspace recently won PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award.
Socialtext Kwikspace is an open source wiki alternative for developers looking to extend basic wiki functionality themselves with modules compatible with our commercial products.
Socialtext Eventspace is for workshops, events and conferences that enables self-organized community and content. Some of our customers include PC Forum, O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology Conference, ISPcon, Supernova and Always On. It includes an integrated chat and wiki (what some call a Chiki) and has also provide integrated streaming video for rich remote participation.
Where is this headed? Will we still be using the word “wiki” in three years?
I am sure the Hawaiians will use it twice as much as we do ;-). Wiki is gaining popular understanding thanks to high-profile projects like Wikipedia and our own efforts. They are widely understood by technologists and early adopters and its possible there are as many users behind firewalls as weblogs because of the diffusion of open source varieties. This year you will see an increase in the number of developer communities hosted on wikis and a variety of public collaborative editing and community projects.
Within the enterprise, the alternative of a people’s Intranet is already being constructed from the bottom-up, like all great distruptive technologies (PCs, Spreadsheets, email, IM, etc.). We will continue to extend the wiki core to additional enterprise requirements and systems, but with a watchful eye on usability.
We spent the past few years developing the physical infrastructure of the web. Through boom and bust the thing we learned is that real relationships and what we can each contribute matters. Now a critical mass of people are using the web for socially and the challenge is developing a social infastructure. We couldn’t exist if new social norms of writing, editing and networking on the web were not being adopted. Social Software fosters social capital, which strengthens civil society and enables enterprises to innovate and rapidly change course, something we are proud to contribute to.
