Wikipedia, the most famous wiki platform, tends to pop up at the top of most Internet searches. However, the Internet is teeming with wiki sites or wikifarms hosting countless wiki communities with millions of pages. Popular platforms are Wikia, Wikispaces, PBworks, and Google Sites. All offer free accounts inviting users to browse or start their own wikis on any imaginable topic of interest. One notable online community is Wikibiz on Wikia, which is currently seeking competent business users to edit over 200 articles. It’s not hard to understand how businesses benefit from wikis for providing documentation, establishing a knowledge base, collaborating on and editing articles, and communicating in forums and chats. But what makes a valuable contributor?

Whether they contribute to a wiki on the Internet or at work, participants should try to abide by the conventions of polite society, yet even commonsense rules are often broken. Valued users show respect and avoid ambiguous language. They don’t attack or harshly criticize other contributors. They aren’t trolls (annoying individuals who post irrelevant or controversial comments that anger fellow users and disrupt a discussion). Because expression online allows for little subtlety, wiki editors know that words can be misinterpreted. Members of online communities form deep bonds and dislike contributors they consider vicious or mean.

Wiki users must verify their facts and pay attention to correct grammar and spelling. Every comment a member contributes is published on the Internet and available to any reader. If the wiki is on the intranet behind a firewall, an ill-conceived comment is for the whole company to see. Sloppiness causes embarrassment or worse. Wikipedia, a wiki that is trying to marry credibility with its desire for openness, tightened the rules for editors after incursions of Internet vandals who posted inaccurate information.

Errors introduced by cyber attacks and innocent errors alike are often perpetuated by readers who blindly trust wiki content.

Any new user needs to read and follow the guidelines for contributors and give credit where credit is due. Every contribution must fit into the group effort in style, content, and format. Newbies should ask for help if necessary. Big egos and effective collaboration don’t go hand in hand. Contributors are part of a team, not individual authors who can expect recognition or maintain control over their writing.

Sources must be cited to avoid plagiarism. Users of copyrighted material must follow fair use guidelines or ask for explicit permission.

Your Task. 

Your boss, Evan Bell, sent you the preceding information about wikis, their terms of use, and community guidelines. Because you are a new trainee, the manager wants you to try your hand at drafting his memo to all staff to prepare everyone for the launch of the new wiki. He asks you to extract relevant behavior guidelines from the text and summarize them in several actionable rules for the soon-to-be-deployed corporate wiki. Employees are also expected to attend a mandatory wiki training. The sign-up deadline for this training is May 24. To sign up and obtain answers to technical questions, employees need to get in touch with Joanna Bridge in the IT department. Her e-mail address is jbridge@futrtech.com. In your memo or e-mail to future company wiki users, present the content in a visually appealing format. Try to emulate the information documents shown in Figures 5.1 and 5.3. Paraphrase; don’t just cut and paste from the text!