Wikis for Good
A wiki is a web page that anyone can edit. The name wiki itself comes from the Hawaiian expression wiki, meaning "quick". Wikipedia, the Internet’s largest encyclopedia, is one of the best known wikis today. Check out our InfoPage on Wikipedia here.
People need information that is constantly changing: Who’s doing what? What has changed? When is it needed? Where’s the info? Why are we doing this? How are we doing it?
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Wikis are easy to use. Wikis require minimal technological expertise. It’s not difficult to learn how to set one up and update it on your own. The interfaces on most wiki providers, like WetPaint and WikiSpaces, are designed to be user-friendly and accessible.
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Wikis are universally accessible. Wikis allow for efficient long-distance collaboration. Anyone can edit them, and they are online so anyone can contribute to or learn from them.
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Wikis keep a public record. Wikis act as a depository for your information. The wiki page distills and merges all updates so that it shows the latest aggregation at any one time. And if you need to, you can go back and examine the change history to see who did what.
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Wikis save you time and resources. In the review and refinement process, if we use a wiki then we aren’t printing out e-mails and passing around paper. Wikis take the place of long and confusing email chains.
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Wikis have built-in two-way communication. Wikis allow for immediate and ongoing feedback from visitors, something that many web citizens are increasingly expecting from any site they visit.
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Wikis are flexible. You can use them for short- or long-term projects, and then can be as rigid or open as you like. Navigation can be a simple list of available pages, a more complicated hierarchical structure, a complex cross-referencing—or all of the above. It’s up to you!
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Wikis aren’t good with maintaining threaded discussions. A wiki can gradually turn into an unappealing mess of links and text. It’s important to define a workable structure at the outset, and encourage contributors to stick to it.
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Wikis are ugly. You can change the colours to match that of your charity, but design options are quite limited.
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Working with document and picture attachments can be cumbersome.
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Wikis take some time getting used to. We’re so used to viewing Web sites as complex things edited by somebody else. It can take a little while for you to get used to the idea that a wiki is nothing more than an online word processing document.
Many activities that contribute to your mission may be made more efficient by a Wiki. Below is a list of examples of how your charity can use wikis:
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Event Planning: Wikis can also be used in the planning of events, such as socials, fundraisers, and conferences. Your charity can use a wiki for registration, program planning, note taking, and virtually all the logistical details.
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Conference Wiki: During a conference or event, designated note takers can start a new page on the wiki and capture notes during the session. You could also encourage attendees to set up another page on the wiki and post their notes to share and help bring ideas forward. This will allow those who were unable to attend the conference to still learn and participate. Furthermore, a wiki can save you time and money. Instead of using traditional resource materials such as handouts and brochures, you can create a wiki to support the learning for the day.
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Group Projects: Have people brainstorm and work on a specific project on a wiki. Keep track of any changes, and catch people up who missed a meeting. Wikis are especially useful when team members are across borders. In your project wiki, you can track the project’s life cycle, and include things like to-do lists, meeting agendas, meeting minutes, and brainstorming presentations.
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Internal Relations: Create an organizational wiki for your employees. It can include how to perform a task, a quick tip, an update, or a how-to guide. A wiki can help bring teams together, get new team members up to speed more efficiently, encourage staff to contribute to the community of your organization, and preserve critical organizational knowledge. For example, the Alzheimer Society of Ontario created a wiki that has become the central communication hub for its 39 chapters across the province.
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Best Practices: Create a wiki of best practices. Users would be able to add their examples and ideas on their own rather than relying on a central organization and technical staff to update the site. Street Kids International uses wikis to create public communities of practice. This allows for a group of like-minded people to collaborate and discuss an issue or solve a problem. The wiki also features videos and updates on the charity’s initiatives and projects.
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Share your mission and goals: Keep track of what you've learnt about your latest passion in a Wiki. By inviting and encouraging others who share your interest to the space you can build a better site than you ever could alone.
All you need is Internet access and an account on a wiki service. There are several free ones to choose from like WetPaint, WikiSpaces, PBWiki, and WikiDot. There are also wiki services that charge for upgraded features, however, you should consider that option only once you and your charity have familiarized yourself with wikis and what they can do to help you further your cause and make work easier.
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Click the “Create a Free Website” link at the top left-hand corner.
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The first two steps are about naming your site and editor restrictions. Fill in a name, URL, description, category, and privacy settings. Wikis can be public, protected, or private. Public means that all content is visible to the public and that anyone can make changes, even anonymously. Protected wikis may be viewed by the public, but only authorized users may make edits. Private wikis are hidden from public view and can only be seen and edited by designated users. You can change everything but the URL later.
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Once you are done, click the “Continue to Step 2: the fun part” button.
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Now you can choose a design for your wiki. There are over 20 styles to choose from. You can change this later.
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Click “Continue to Step 3: the other part” when you are done.
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Now you have to create a WetPaint account. If you already have a WetPaint account, choose that option, and then enter your username and password. If you don’t, fill in the information.
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Once you’re done, the click “Next, invite some friends to help out” at the bottom of the page.
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This page is optional, but it allows you to e-mail those you know who can help you build your wiki. Enter the e-mail addresses of your friends, supporters, volunteers, donors, staff, etc. and edit the personal message, introducing them to your new wiki, and inviting them to collaborate with you. Once you are done, click “Send the invitations and create my site!”
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You can skip this step, by clicking the “just create my site” link at the bottom of the page.
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WetPaint will take a few moments to create your wiki. Once it has finished, click the “Take me to my site” button to see your wiki. If this doesn’t work, check the e-mail address you provided them to go to your wiki.
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Invite people if you haven’t already. Now you can start building, collaborating and learning!
- Commoncraft has a quick and lively video explaining how you could use wiki to share your subject, and how you can easily create a connected community.
- Grow Your Wiki offers insight, examples, case studies, and advice on enterprise wiki adoption and usage inside organizations. Check out their video series called 21 Days of Wiki Adoption to learn how your organization can use a wiki effectively.
