The choice of business wiki can help or hinder a business. My article how to choose the best wiki is a general introduction to choosing a wiki. It describes features you need to consider when choosing a wiki for any use. In the ‘choose the best wiki’ article, you are left to decide which of these features are your highest priorities. In this article I discuss, what I consider the essential features of a business wiki.
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Mark Wiseman
Online Collaboration
Articles about online collaboration
in business, education and organisations.
Wiki Software
Detailed reviews and comparisons of popular wiki software.
Wiki FAQs
How to choose a wiki, how to use a wiki and other wiki advice.
Website Promotion
No point having a wiki, website or blog unless you promote it.
Website Design
Useful website design and website development tips for newbies wanting to extend their wiki, website or blog.
Domain Names
Your own domain name is important. Here are some things you should know.
Latest articles
Collaborate using Google Bookmarks
Google bookmarks can be accessed from any internet connection. Labelling (tagging) of the bookmarks simplifies finding pages you want to revisit. It is easy to share Google bookmarks with your team and a little innovation increases their usefulness.
Project definition
This article identifies six crucial areas of project definition. Defining a project is a little different from scoping a project. Defining the project takes place before you get started; scoping the project is the first step in getting started. It is an essential part of business planning.
Each of the six areas identified has a series of issues you need to clarify with a potential client before you take on a project. They form a good framework for a project definition meeting with a potential client.
For ‘client’ you can read customer, boss or manager depending on the status of the project you need to define. If you are considering a project for yourself, these issues are just as vital.
Clikkawiki: new open source wiki for classroom education
Associate Professor Michael Bowen is developing a new open source wiki specifically designed for classroom education and is keen to get input from other teachers. He read my article on the Best Wiki for Classroom Education and left a comment, so I contacted him for more details.
Ten benefits of a business wiki
Here are ten really good reasons you need a wiki for your business.
1. Cut down on emails without missing out on a thing
A wiki drastically reduces the number of in-house emails. There is no need for them and there is no need to download attachments as the file is already on the wiki.
Google SEO: primary formula
Google SEO can turn us into winners or losers. Problem is Google wont tell us the rules of its secret algorithm and the rules keep changing. SEO experts make a living analysing and interpreting the nuances of SEO and the Google algorithm, so where does that leave the rest of us. If only there was some simple formula, we could fall back on. Well here it is, and it works for all SEO efforts not just Google.
Even Google uses this formula, although they may not know it.
Wiki text, wiki syntax or wiki markup
Wiki text, wiki syntax or wiki markup are all terms for a language used by many wikis to allow authors to easily create, write, edit and format pages on wiki websites from their web browsers. Wikis are increasingly offering WYSIWYG editing or access to the wiki page’s html but there are advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches.
Markup
Markup is the use of coded annotations on written text to convey additional information. The term originated in the traditional printing industry when copywriters would handwrite codes on their manuscripts to tell typesetters how they wanted particular segments of text formatting. Over time, these annotations became standardised. Read More
First wiki: wiki wiki web
The first wiki, the wiki wiki web, is the brainchild of Ward Cunningham. Conceived in 1994 and born in 1995, this first wiki website, http://c2.com can still be visited.
Ward was looking for a quick way to work with other programmers to collaboratively publish software patterns on the web. He drew on his work with HyperCard Stacks.
Ward Cunningham’s stroke of genius
Combining collaborative editing of individual web pages with the hyperlink functionality of HyperCard was a stroke of genius. Not only can authors easily edit existing pages but they can also, just as easily, add new pages. A wiki website can grow without the constraints of a strict hierarchical structure.
Test your website design in different browsers at the same time
Browser compatibily is a major issue in website design but testing your design in different browsers at the same time is now easy.
Website users view pages using a wide range of browsers. In September 2007 W3Schools presented these stats:
- Internet Explorer 7 20.8%
- Internet Explorer 6 34.9%
- Internet Explorer 5 1.5%
- Firefox 35.4%
- Mozilla 1.2%
- Safari 1.6%
- Opera 1.5%
You want all your potential readers to see your website at its best, no matter what browser they are using. Testing across different browsers was a pain until Browsershots appeared.
Browsershots will test your web page and take a snapshot of your website design in sixteen different browser OS combinations and show you exactly how it looks in each.
It is an essential (and free) tool.
Wetpaint wiki: ad-free for educators
One of my criteria for Best Wiki for Classroom Education was that it should be ad-free. Wetpaint wiki have realised the importance of having ad-free wikis for educators, I hope it was because they read my article!
If you are an educator and you want to apply for an ad-free Wetpaint wiki you can visit Wetpaint’s Wikis in Education site.
Here is my review of Wetpaint wiki.
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