Wikis At Work

You might be interested to know that your business intelligence peers are investigating how to use wikis in the business environment. Or at least that's what the high level of interest in one of our recent stories indicates.You probably know it by now, but here's a quick definition of wikis: They're Web sites for information-sharing that can be edited by anyone given permission, as has been demonstrated most noticeably by Wikipedia, the free (though sometimes inaccurate) online general reference source.

They appeal more and more to the business community for two reasons: First, they're great for information- and intelligence-sharing within companies, and they can provide an archival look at changes to information as it's edited. Second, as our recent story points out, they're cheap. I spoke with a wiki expert recently who told me that every night when the lights go off, all of a company's best knowledge leaves the building with the employees. Wikis are designed to provide a new, permanent place for information-gathering.