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 They are the wiki and how to use them as productive tool in business







Large companies are already started has implemented "wikis" (collaborative web sites) to organize its internal work in a more effective way. Nokia and the Bank Dresdner Kleinwort lead this new way of working.
 

The most representative example of this phenomenon is that of two European companies, Nokia mobile phones manufacturer and the Investment Bank, with headquarters in London and Frankfurt, Dresdner Kleinwort. Both companies have been forced in recent months to launch its official "wiki" site to the importance that was becoming this system as a tool of work among its employees.

 



"wiki" has so many followers in both companies in such a short time because the productivity of some departments has increased in a tangible way.
 

That is what has happened in the Department of electronic commerce of Dresdner Kleinwort, which employs 52 people in countries as far away as London, Frankfurt, Tokyo or New York.



In the past two years has encouraged from the own Department address to use "wiki" of the company for the exchange of information and documents to the detriment of the e-mail to, thus bridging the gap and to ensure that everyone will work with the same platform.
 

The result is that the use of e-mail has been cut by 75%, while maintaining productivity levels very similar or even higher, since employees have to go to a single source of information for monitoring the 80 sites that depend on the Department of Commerce of this bank. That takes it just a few minutes while that, using another way of working, to access these same data they would even days.

 


The origin of the word wiki is found in the expression "wiki-wiki", which means "quick" in Hawaiian. Ward Cunningham invented wikis as an open web page, in that it allows any user to visit it, add content or delete it, even though that content is loaded it a third party. In this way, the site grows thanks to the constant work of a community of users interested in the same topics.



Any company or social organization can start using this excellent tool for collaborative work that gets free and easily from the Internet.
 

A wiki is a site and application web whose pages can be edited by multiple users through a web browser. These users can create, modify, or delete a single text that share. Wikis are useful for purposes of coordination of team.
 


The essence of the nature of the operation of a wiki, helps us in work environments based on cooperation and collaboration on computers, presenting alternatives to support the process of teaching-learning in organizations. It also facilitates the movement of regulated information according to needs.




To date, the companies have worked internally through systems of database, characterized by a high structure of a large amount of data, to facilitate the rapid issuance of reports by combining different values, by allowing the fluidity in the introduction of data and be based on access controls.


Wikis, by contrast, would not have such limitations of access to internal level of the company and its software is much more intuitive and easier than a system of database, especially for those who do not have facility for new technologies.





Here are some suggestions for use of wikis in enterprises:

Collaboration: horizontal and vertical way among the members of the company.
Product information: updating product information from different sources, and in this way avoid the sent mails and reports with new versions of the documents on the products.
Implementation of projects: simple place to the contribution of members who are located in different places or areas.
Brainstorm: brainstorming that allows the contribution of any person on any subject in a very dynamic way.
New employees: to facilitate processes of induction.
New products: the same members of the company can contribute their opinions about new products before being released.
Organization of meetings: know the agendas of different people in a collaborative and fast way.
Customer service: customer service managers can bring their experiences thus simplifying others.
Trends of your industry: all members of the organization can provide useful and interesting data that detect on the sector.





The wiki, in addition to the horizontal collaboration, will also allow the vertical, so lower hierarchical lines employees contribute their knowledge to those of top lines. This interaction between one and the other is more difficult that occurs without a wiki, then easily departments end up be watertight compartments and the flow of information from one to the other is low due to the bureaucracy.
 

The trend is being installed Wiki in business

 
There are already several large companies that implement the model of Wikipedia to facilitate their internal communication processes and organize the work according to E-commerce Times, recognized means of technology and online in the United States business. Companies such as Motorola, Intel and Sony have begun to explore this technology to share agendas, view the status of a project, edit documents, and exchange ideas.

 



For the creation of the Wikis we have multiple possibilities of software reach where we can differentiate software that acts on the cloud and that we install on local. In any case, by its very nature Wikis are designed for use within the company, not to use the exterior facing, as it could be a corporate website.
 

Internal wikis: we installed in our own facilities, either on the server in a shared resource, etc. The main advantage of this option is the control of the data, which always remain in our custody.


 
External wikis: we have already hosted in the cloud, are under the SaaS mode or not, since them we have installed in our space hosting contracted for this purpose and thus always available from any location. The main advantage we have is to be able to access from any location, we do not necessarily have to be in our facilities to access.



Currently to have a Wiki, we have two alternatives. The first is an own server using the installation and configuration of software for wiki. The second alternative is via an online wiki platform service.




CRITERIA FOR SELECTING WIKIS

 
Given the variety of possibilities beyond out, you will have too many features to choose, but can walk you through the following criteria broadly:

The cost
Storage capacity (we want more than this)
Self-installable or housed on a server.
We want to use the wiki syntax or use HTML
Editors WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text or plain text.
The functionality to upload files.
Other aspects to consider will exclusively depend on how you need to use the wiki and you should review the characteristics of each options before deciding on one.




MediaWiki is one of the content management systems more popular and robust that specialize in wikis installed on its own server. It was initially developed for the Wikipedia, but then released under the GNU GPL license.
 

MediaWiki has been translated into several languages, he has a basic syntax for the elementary editing of the content and the generated content is XHTML. Install and configure MediaWiki is not something simple for an ordinary user, it requires some knowledge in installation of PHP and MySQL as well as web servers. However, this is offset since MediaWiki is the alternative with greater capacity in what refers to systems own wikis on a server or hosting of our property; and it is 100% free to be under GNU GPL license.



In the case of micro-enterprises and SMEs that do not have the ability to either by staff, technical or economic resources to implement an own wiki using a software platform, ideally using one of the many online services that are currently available on the web, some even with service of free accounts, so if we restrict its limitationsWe can manage a wiki in just a few steps and no cost.
 


Wikispaces is probably the best wiki for a beginner and also is a capable platform for enterprise organizations. It is intuitively easy to set up and customize. And if you have problems, the community offers a great amount of support and the Wikispaces team is available through e-mail.

 
Both the payment and the free version features wiki have standards: control review, notification by RSS and email of changes to the page, WYSIWYG page editor, create a backup in zip. The customization of the templates using HTML and CSS is only available for solutions pay. Wikispaces does not provide access to the content control features until you upgrade to one of the private labels.




Socialtext is a service professional wiki online that allows you to collaborate with other users in your projects. Socialtext enables each user to have access to a shared document in a personalized way, because the layout of your wiki is composed of different modules of re-placeable via drag & drop. The service works perfectly on your mobile, and is free of ads.




EditMe is an online service that allows users to quickly and easily create content wiki. Such content can be edited by other users to enrich the information. Not many technical knowledge is needed to create and edit with EditMe, its interface is very intuitive and similar to any text editor. EditMe is ideal to develop processes of learning within organizations, study groups, companies, because by providing information through wikis, users have the possibility of acquiring new knowledge in a simple way.

 
Wiki in business

EditMe offers a free trial period for 30 days. After this time, users should choose one of the plans offered by the platform. The basic plan has a cost of $ 19 per month, which offers 1 GB of space, 500 pages, wiki and access to 10 users. The following plans and Business Enterprises, has a monthly cost of $140 and 49 respectively.