Are we Headed for a Wiki World?

Wikipedian writes "BusinessWeek asks are we headed for a Wiki World?. With US-based SocialText using their wiki to leverage just $600K in capital, and European competitor Team Notepad, not to mention freeware alternatives like TWiki and MoinMoin is the whole world going to be using wikis instead of the proprietary dinosaurs like Lotus Notes?"

Comments

You mean the robot from Buck Rogers?

[The I Shing]

You mean that robot from Buck Rogers who had Dr. Theopolis hanging around his neck? Wasn't his name Wiki?

Re:Lotus Notes, Kill Bill, UI Hall of Shame, etc..

[TykeClone]

So - you're saying that you don't like Lotus Notes then?

prediction of success

[theMerovingian]

I will personally endorse this 'productivity' software for my company on one condition...

they give me the ability to anonymously moderate coworkers as trolls!

Snapshots from a wiki wiki world...

[Tackhead]

Wikis are dead. No, I'm not going to make a Netcraft joke. Wikis fail because disorganized documentation that makes no sense to the author should also make no sense to the reader. If it was hard to write, anyone should be able to jump in and correct it, even if it leads to the occasional non sequitur. If the user doesn't like it, that's their problem, they should be reading the source code, not the documentation. Yeah, because they should be thankful anyone bothers to write code in the first place. If they can't change the code, fuck them!

And that's why we're going to live in a Wiki World. Because collaboration is the solution to everything. Having lots of voices ensures diversity of opinion, which reminds me -- if you support this software project, don't forget to show it by voting for Dean in the primaries!

Which is precisely why Wikis will never catch on. Documentation, like code, was meant to be written and edited by small teams at best - too many cooks spoil the broth (But Dean was cool, so I'm leaving your endorsement in!). For instance, the last time I tried to learn something about a subject by using Wikis, I found they were as twisty as a mass of spaghetti in an Infocom game and John Kerry, and I read blogs!

Re:I hope not.

[kfg]

So I suppose if Hawaii is a bastian of 'Eastern Religion' . . .

Well, does 'wiki-wiki' sound like a Western word to you?

Think about it.

KFG

Re:Because we're living, in a wiki world...

[SlashDread]

"Lotus Notes is a beast. It stops working whenever it feels like it, and occasionally corrupts the database just to make your day."

Sounds a lot like "Microsoft Echange"

"/Dread"

Re:Lotus Notes, Kill Bill, UI Hall of Shame, etc..

[Otter]

Well, that's a downer. I'm using 5.0.9, and was looking at his screenshots thinking "At least this new version looks a little better! When are we getting upgraded?"

Re:Wiki *is* revolution

[micromoog]

I'd rather read something by one intelligent person with credentials than something written by 1000 idiots.

Why are you reading Slashdot?

In Soviet Russia ...

[shimmin]

In Soviet Russia, any wiki can freely edit you!

Re:Somebody Explain Wikis, Please

[Chris Parrinello]

My Slashdot UID is so low, people have offered to pay me for it.

Who are these people and can they pay via PayPal?

Dammit!

[eno2001]

First you make me say "wiki". Then you make me say "Business Week" and all that comes out is "Business Wiki". Maybe you're right. Maybe we are headed for a Wiki world... ;P

Re:Try Instiki

[Curunir_wolf]

OMG ... Ruby!?!? WTF? Who the hell uses Ruby ? (and 1.8.1 required - seems to break on 1.8.2).

I mean, seriously, "easiest to set up and configure..." as long as you have a working Ruby install lying around. Yea, I want another language to deal with.

And isn't "object-oriented scripting language" an oxymoron??