Difference between Wiki and Business Wiki Wiki was developed by Howard G. (Ward) Cunningham in 1994, who described wiki as “the simplest online database that could possible work”. To be specific, Wikis are web-based tools that make it easy for users to add, remove, and change online content. Definition: Business wiki is one kind of Wiki that will be considered as the most powerful collaborative web pages that allow users to edit documents, share ideas, or monitor the status of a project within the organization. (Baltzan, Phillips) Business wiki is also called Enterprise wiki and Corporate wiki.
Business Wiki Around the World More and more companies are engaging in some sort of Globalization. The implementation of Business Wiki provides the organization the tool to share the information more rapidly and efficiently. Business Wiki provide the platform for all the employees to be interactive without the considerations of different locations or different time zone. By working on the same platform, and keeping every step of the project up-to-date, Business Wiki can help increasing the productivity and efficiency in a enormous way. Business Wiki Within the organization First of all, Business Wiki can largely decreasing the amount of email within the companies. Most of the trivial matters within the companies can be posted promptly on the daily basis. For example, regular maintenance of the AC system is scheduled this afternoon, the copy machine is broken, or new regulation about using the break room, all the information in this nature can be easily distribute across the organization without repeatedly sending every employee the same email. Second of all, Business Wiki can protect organizational information. For example, some important information can be announced on the special designed wiki. Only certain employee can have access to the information, while the entire team is aware of what the process are and keep the information flow in regards to all the details of this particular project within a certain scope. Third of all, Business Wiki plays a role in collaboration between departments. When dealing with a project, one department might not have enough resource or lack of idea. Business Wiki provide a perfect tool to generate ideas, put other people’s contribute into better use. In addition, Business Wiki can also enhancing meetings or even replace them altogether. Before the meeting, the object and schedule can be announced on wiki, therefore, it’s not critical that some of the members can’t participate. Also, a wiki can be effectively used when the ideas need to be communicated hence create synergy. After the meeting, the meeting notes will be provided on the wiki which can lead to future discussion, more communication and better solutions. Furthermore, Business wiki can simplify the use of documentation. By implementing certain templates and forms, with special design feature, documentation can be easily sorted and categorized without extra manual efforts. Nowadays, with hundreds of millions of people using wikis in their workplace, more companies are turning to the power of the wiki to streamline internal communications both on a multiple location platform and within a single location. All the leading companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Ebay, Google, Cisco, and Apple all implemented some sorts of wiki to increase productivity and communication. Because of Business Wiki’s nature of easy to use, easy to set up, and easy to interconnect, more and more companies will switch from the traditional content management system to the more effective Business Wiki implementation. Example of Business Wiki: Google Sites, Biziwiki, Wikispaces Reference: Business Driven Information System, Paige Baltzan, Amy Phillips
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