Wikis

By now, I'm sure you've at least heard about wikis. One of the most popular, Wikipedia, defines them as websites that allows visitors to add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content.

For quite a while now, I've wondered how our organization could use wikis. What could we accomplish with them? What would be the benefits? What could they do better than some methods we currently use?

One of the main ideas that always occurs to me is that they would be a way to take advantage of the knowledge and expertise that resides within our membership. Our members could "add, remove, and otherwise edit and change content" on any number of topics related to the profession - and do it with substantial authority. They could do it with more authority than we could at "headquarters." We don't have all of the expertise - we have a bit. But in total, the expertise within our members is far greater than we can ever possess here.

This is part of the reason I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of a book published late last year called, "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything." I'm eager to flip through it and hopefully generate some ideas for myself and my organization. As I do, I'll share my thoughts here.

Related to wikis, BusinessWeek has an article today about the community building potential in wikis. The article also mentions a company called Wetpaint that allows you to create your own wiki - looks easy!