Letting your wiki wander

(First, kudos to Ted for keeping this blog alive. Unfortunately, I've been pulled away on a number of projects and haven't been able to give this blog the attention it deserves. I'll try to do better, but keep me honest.)

Wikis are like a box of Legos -- you can build a lot of different things with the same basic components.

I love the serendipitous nature of the wiki. It's like a giant vat of clay, ready to be molded into all sorts of interesting things. And you never know what's going to be made. Wikis are great for the right half of the brain.

The problem is that a wiki is just software. It exists within a human (business) context, and sometimes management can squelch new uses of a wiki. It's vital that the wiki be allowed to evolve, and it takes a lot of guts sometimes to let employees experiment. (Ted has been a master of strategic restraint on this score!)

Ah, there's that word: Experiment. For some it's a dirty word -- after all, they know what the wiki is for, and how dare anyone mess with their perfect vision? But the truth is that wikis have an exciting, unpredictable quality that's unavoidable -- indeed we should welcome it because it attracts creative thinkers.

I know this to be true because that's what's happening with our wiki. Not to embarrass him, but if Ted had managed our corporate wiki by imposing a set of predetermined ideas about how it should be used, the adoption rate across our company would be just a fraction of what it is.

As you plot out your company's wiki strategy, be sure to leave room for the unexpected. Let the creative create. Try this next time: Instead of reacting to new ideas with a clenched fist, first ask the person what he or she had in mind -- you might be pleasantly surprised. Heck, you might even develop a whole new revenue stream.

For some inspiration on taking your wiki in exciting new directions, check out blogs like Future Changes -- and this one, of course.