Sep 19 2008
Wiki Success in the Web 2.0 Environment
Wiki has been synonymous with Web 2.0. In fact, ask anyone about a Web 2.0 website they know and there’s a good chance a majority of them will mention Wikipedia. Wikipedia has grown to become the resource to go to for information. It’s the source of comprehensive, excellent information on the Web and is trusted in nearly the same way as Encyclopedia Britannica was offline. Web 2.0 has significantly contributed to wiki success, thanks to its inherent characteristics.
A free source on the Web
Of course, the Internet has always been a great source of free content. However, there was a clamor for reliable, high quality content. A few years back, many of us viewed free content and software as unreliable and inaccurate and we were more than willing to pay for premium products, which we believed was the better source of information and applications. To some extent, this has proven true and many content providers were more than happy to supply us with what we needed. However, the clamor for a better product continued.
Enter open source. Open source was a revolution in that it not only rode the opportunities offered by the Internet, it also provided us with the means with which to access content and programs that were fresh, reliable, accurate and yes, free. It also pushed the method of content and software creation and development further – it encouraged contributions from the users themselves. This helped eliminate centralized control and distributed the responsibility to those who knew best. It was like doing research for a science project in high school and all your classmates pitched in to help develop your paper.
It’s all about variety
The success of wiki in the Web 2.0 environment is proof that collaboration can lead to excellent things indeed. The technologies made available by the Internet and Web 2.0 itself made it possible for multiple users to act as a team and pool their resources without being limited by distance. Access to knowledge that was otherwise difficult to do was made possible, largely out of the willingness of the participants.
The significance of wiki success in Web 2.0 is that it made possible the creation and distribution of a wide variety of materials to a large number of people. Imagine the product of a collaboration by 100 users being accessed and shared by 100,000 or even more.
The problem with reliability was also addressed, since the open source nature of wiki has successfully allowed for contributions to be discussed, verified and if necessary, edited by the community concerned. If users find an entry erroneous or misleading, they only needed to submit the correct information and support it with citations and appropriate resources.
It’s all about choice
Another contributing factor to wiki success in Web 2.0 is the fact that information may be freely shared. There was little in the way with regards to copyrighting nor were there limitations in terms of licensing. If there were, the agreement would still allow for knowledge to be shared, although in a slightly limited way. This opened many avenues of information and software accessibility for many users. If you needed an operating system, for example, you did not have to shell out money just to use one – you simply had a choice whether to pay for software or to use an open source product. Either way, you were assured of
quality and dependability.
The success of wiki in Web 2.0 comes from the fact that it completely bulldozed established methods of producing both content and software. It was also powered by a time-tested force: the users themselves, who, by choice or circumstance became involved in producing products that were not only of high quality but also free for the world to share.
Here is where this lesson ends for today. We really hope you enjoyed this lesson too.
You will receive the next lesson in 7 days. Next week’s lesson will have the following title:
“Web 2.0 and Wisdom of Crowds”
Copyright(C) 2008 by John Delavera & Reimund Lube