27 Things: Wiki

At first I thought building wikis was like reinventing the wheel. Every place out there, mostly Libraries, are doing the same thing in the same way for their community. Depending upon how much effort went into the wiki the user would have a smooth or rough ride. Some wiki's are so rough they aren't worth the ride. The information contain within the wiki begs for our trust. Will it take us where we want or does it wobble us, bounce us around, or just plain stop us, because of a square side?

I've changed my mind. Let me continue with a different analogy.

A wiki is like a piece of furniture. A bench is perfectly functional, though it may be uncomfortable over the long run and you may wind up with splinters. Some benches will collapse under unreasonable weight. You cannot trust them. Other benches are so strong they will carry, or hold up, just about anything. A wiki may start off as a weak bench but it doesn't have to stay that way.

A craftsman will make, not a simple bench, but a piece of fine furniture, not only functional, but beautiful and comfortable. Furniture which does what it is supposed to do, and is comfortable and beautiful, begs people to come back and use it. They like sitting in it, and will do so for a long time because of its comfort. It does what it is supposed to do, and it does it well.

We don't want one piece of furniture. We want a whole dining room set, then fill up the living room, the family room, the bed rooms, and any other room we can think of. Let's have specialty rooms filled with fine furniture. We want a place that is more than functional. We want comfort and beauty. We want to fill our wiki room, our wiki house, our wiki library, with interesting and fascinating things. We want to draw people in, inspire their curiosity, encourage their creativity, give them the means to grow.

In the hands of a team of professionals who consistently deliver high quality, I think a wiki can do this. I am not interested in the mediocre.