Challenging how knowledge is created
Keith June 12th, 2007
I went to a seminar about wikis organised by education.au a while ago (27 April), where Jimmy Wales, the “father” of Wikipedia, presented. Another key speaker was Mark Pesce. It was a great learning experience.
We heard a lot about Wikipedia (a non-profit organisation), and Jimmy’s other organisation, Wikia, which provides wiki platforms on a for-profit basis.
One important learning from Jimmy’s experience is that it is possible to set up a sustainable wiki with as few as 5 to 10 dedicated people. There is even one case of a successful wiki started by a single (very) dedicated person. Jimmy referred to Wiki as a “return to folk culture”. It is all about a group of individuals each doing their own bit.
It’s all about accountability, not gate-keeping. Anybody can edit – the default position is to trust people. This has also been my experience with our iStore here at Telstra over the last seven years – trust people to share their knowledge openly and easily, and in the vast majority of cases, your trust will be honoured. The more you “lock up” your knowledge sharing with controls, the less likely it is that people will share.