by Trevor Knight

Created on: June 07, 2008

By no means do I view myself as an expert when it comes to wikis, but I do believe that they have the potential to be an extremely useful tool in the area of collaboration. When I was completing my undergraduate level coursework, I worked on many projects with many different people. The only "gathering place" we had was when we were in class or if we set up a meeting in the library, Starbucks, or somewhere else that was accessible by all. Occasionally, everyone was able to communicate through e-mail, but sometimes you didn't have one of the addresses, or someone didn't check their e-mail, so someone does not get the memo. This can be a frustrating process - kind of like trying to call your friend that only has a single telephone line, it seems pointless (hopeless) at times.

With wikis, many problems can be eliminated because you have a central "gathering place" that is always accessible with a computer and an internet connection. Wikis will allow a group to do a lot of different things; share ideas, edit others ideas, respond to ideas, organize information, etc. Often times groups get together and do some brainstorming, which involves everyone getting out some paper and a pencil to jot down tedious notes, and then they might make some decisions about where to go next or who is going to do what. Wikis would provide a written record of the collaboration that is happening within the group in a working document. Another benefit is that not everyone has to be present at the same time, unlike a fantasy draft. One person can add something to the page, and then when other group members check the page, it will be there - they can access it at any time, from anywhere. The group can take pride in the "authorship" of their wiki - it is created, added to, and edited by them. Depending on the work being done on the wiki, it is possible to see a "bias" develop that would show the attitude or beliefs of the group.

Wikis seem to be very versatile, offering many benefits, with very little consequence. There does not seem to me to be any real drawbacks to using a wiki to increase communication, other than the idea that anyone has access to a public wiki, so there is potential for someone to maliciously edit someone else's work, but it can by edited back. People in a class would need to be taught how to use a wiki, which does not seem like it would be too difficult to do. Once people were up and running with the knowledge of how to access them and use them properly, let the communication begin.

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