by Jim Cashel
January 2004
Ross Mayfield heads SocialText, a
social software firm best know for its wiki products. We asked his views about
these innovative collaborative tools.
There is lots in the press today about wikis. What are they and why are
they cool?
A wiki is the simplest way for a group to create a website. Think of it as a
multi-dimensional whiteboard that makes links easier than any other tool. Wiki
Wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian, something Ward Cunningham (disclosure:
Socialtext Advisor) noted while sitting in the Honolulu airport and thinking of
what to call his invention back in 1995. Wikis are deceptively simple, yet
extremely flexible. Just as weblogs make the web writable, wikis make the web
editable. Since anyone can "Edit this Page" without knowing HTML, it
reduces the barriers to contribution while letting users create their own
information architecture.
Wikis are constantly in motion and reflect the current shared understanding
of the group. At scale you would think this form of collaborative editing
couldn't possibly work, but it is comparable in terms of quantity and quality to
traditional editorial workflow. Even when put to the difficult task of having
strangers agree on definitions. Giving editing rights to everyone means you have
to give up some control and identity as an author, but this actually fosters
trust, particularly within organizations.
They are also cool because they are the antithesis of traditional enterprise
software with its top-down design the imposes process, ontology and structure
upon users. By giving users the power to create, link and form groups it serves
the domain of business practice, the unstructured collaboration that leverages
informal networks. A wiki can serve group activities quickly, so a project can
begin with conversation and prototyping instead of waiting for a tool to be
created or implemented. Work done in a wiki creates its own usable archive,
rather than requiring a side-activity or having designated experts determine
what is of value. The bottom-up approach also produces a dense link structure
that has its own emergent patterns, with the best content and expertise rising
to the top, to inform decisions based on what your organization actually knows.
We are familiar with Wikipedia, the (amazing) jointly-edited encyclopedia
built on wiki technology. Are there other interesting public wikis?
The orignal WikiWikiWeb,
MeatballWiki
for meta-discussion about wikis, collaborative travel guide Wikitravel,
SCO vs.
IBM for trial coverage and the IA
wiki on information architecture. Wikipedia also has some sister project
such as Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote and Wikisource.
What are some useful ways that companies or organizations are using wikis
internally?
Most of our Socialtext Workspace customers use us for project communication.
There are lots of existing tools for project scheduling and coordination, but
projects are about conversations. Having a persistent space for conversation,
collaborative document editing, agendas, meeting notes, status reports and
brainstorms accelerates project cycles while reducing operational risk within a
searchable repository.
Some other interesting uses include knowledge sharing within R&D units,
presidential campaign that uses us for decentralized news analysis, a department
of a media organization that manages editorial, artwork and production within
wiki and a software company that uses us for both managing offshore development
and solution-oriented customer care.
While internal use is diverse and serves departments from M&A to R&D,
some of the interesting uses are between organizations. Consulting teams manage
their projects internally, but also create shared spaces with customers that are
accessible with any web browser. ChordicInitatives.org uses Socialtext to
support its community of practice.
Tell me about your company and products?
Socialtext is the Enterprise Social Software company. We have over 25 paying
customers with some scaling over 400 users. We adapt lightweight web-native
tools like wikis and weblogs for enterprise and event use.
Socialtext Workspace is our flagship solution for communication,
collaboration and publishing. At the core, its a wiki, but also has tightly
integrated weblog and email functionality that enables productive communication
patterns and allows new users to contribute using the email interface they are
accustomed to. It accels at easy group-forming, ease of use and low cost of
ownership. Available as a hosted service or a pre-configured appliance, we offer
a 30-day trial and a Starter Package for 5 users for one year at $995.
Socialtext Workspace recently won PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award.
Socialtext Kwikspace is an open source wiki alternative for developers
looking to extend basic wiki functionality themselves with modules compatible
with our commercial products.
Socialtext Eventspace is for workshops, events and conferences that enables
self-organized community and content. Some of our customers include PC Forum,
O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference, ISPcon, Supernova and Always On. It
includes an integrated chat and wiki (what some call a Chiki) and has also
provide integrated streaming video for rich remote participation.
Where is this headed? Will we still be using the word "wiki" in
three years?
I am sure the Hawaiians will use it twice as much as we do! Wiki is
gaining popular understanding thanks to high-profile projects like Wikipedia and
our own efforts. They are widely understood by technologists and early adopters
and its possible there are as many users behind firewalls as weblogs because of
the diffusion of open source varieties. This year you will see an increase in
the number of developer communities hosted on wikis and a variety of public
collaborative editing and community projects.
Within the enterprise, the alternative of a people's Intranet is already
being constructed from the bottom-up, like all great distruptive technologies
(PCs, Spreadsheets, email, IM, etc.). We will continue to extend the wiki core
to additional enterprise requirements and systems, but with a watchful eye on
usability.
We spent the past few years developing the physical infrastructure of the
web. Through boom and bust the thing we learned is that real relationships and
what we can each contribute matters. Now a critical mass of people are using the
web for socially and the challenge is developing a social infastructure. We
couldn't exist if new social norms of writing, editing and networking on the web
were not being adopted. Social Software fosters social capital, which
strengthens civil society and enables enterprises to innovate and rapidly change
course, something we are proud to contribute to.
