A reader (thanks!) sent me this link to a Journal article (sub required) – written by Kara Swisher – good to see Kara covering this space again – about Wikis. I’ve been using Wikis for the past 9 months or so on a couple different projects and I certainly see the potential, but far as I can tell, they are not quite there yet. However, there are some developments in the works, one of which will be demonstrated at Web 2.0, that are very exciting (Joe Kraus will be there with his new company Jot). From the piece:
Now, venture capitalists are funding several startups that are attempting to take the idea to a bigger and more lucrative general-business audience. Their goal is to try to solve one of the workplace’s most vexing problems: how to have employees collaborate and communicate better electronically….
….Getting average people to think about controlling the Web as comfortably as they might an e-mail or a Word document has not been easy. But the rise in popularity of Web logs known as blogs and other “social software” is changing that. Blogging, say wiki proponents, has revived the idea that a Web site can be an ever-changing organism that can be linked with other Web sites to create a larger and more informative picture….
….Jot’s Joe Kraus says that to make wikis more widespread, companies like his and Mr. Mayfield’s must make wiki software simple to integrate into existing applications that workers commonly use, add more features beyond document editing and make it even more enticing for people to deploy them. “People have to perceive that they only need to add a little information in order to get a lot out of it,” says Mr. Kraus.
Much as I love Ross, it will be nice to see somebody besides him speaking about Wiki’s at one of these conferences.
I am curious though, how to you plan to avoid the problem that I have seen at several conferences I have been to recently about new technologies, which is that large parts of them end up being vendors touting their wares (to much audience dissatisfaction)?
Love you too, Tim. And with two people speaking about wikis you can have a debate.
Ross,
I didn’t mean to offend you, and sorry if I have, it is just that I have heard you talk at ETech, Supernova, etc, and I was interested in hearing another point of view as well. Do you and Joe disagree strongly about some aspect of business social software? If so, a debate might be very interesting.
John,
I’m still interested in your answer to my second problem
You mean at Web 2.0? By not letting them do it, of course!
Tim, no offense taken whatsoever.
John, Tim’s second problem is related to the first.
Ross,
Thanks, and congratulations on the vote of confidence from the VC’s. If force of personality and persistence can make a business succeed, Socialtext is golden.
John,
I imagine that’s what Kevin and Tim told their speakers. If that is your only plan, I fear that you and your audience are in for a dissapointment. I think that in part due to blogging, audiences are a lot more knowledgeable and a lot more impatient than they used to be.
Good luck,