Do We Need a Wiki?
A wiki can be a valuable tool for an organization, or a cumbersome obstacle depending on how a group chooses to focus their content. The following guidelines should help organizations make the decision on whether it is worth investing in a wiki.

 

You Need a Wiki If . . .

• You plan on making regular changes to online content. If your program intends to have an online manual or host a website for continually updated support, a wiki may be a good idea. It allows users to examine the most updated version of a FAQ or utilize a community for documenting fixes and important information.
  
• You want to promote your organization’s activities on the net. Wikis provide an avenue to showcase an organization’s efforts and attract attention to their goals and projects.
  
• The primary users for specific content are outside your organization. A wiki is a good tool when sensitive information is not involved.
  
• You want to customize your site experience. Software such as MediaWiki is open source and provides many additional features and support from the Wiki Community. Project management tools require that members use their built-in interfaces.

 

You May Not Need a Wiki If …

• If you are interested in software to manage project milestones, organize schedules, and take a significant burden off the user for keeping track of information. About anything a project management tool can do can be done with a wiki, but the primary difference is that a PM is specifically designed with management features. Wikis involve more work to perform the same function as a PM system.
  
• You want to limit access to various sections of the site within an organization. In a wiki, everything is a free for all once inside the wiki. Project management tools provide better security measures than a wiki, especially since open-source programs are inherently vulnerable to hackers.
  
• The final version of a file will be in PDF, a Word document, or other non-html format. If the focus is on organization and not online content, other software may be more suitable.

 

Wiki versus Project Management Tools
When do you use which? The easy solution is to get a project management tool that also allows for wiki creation so you have both. But if you want my thoughts on the distinctions of use...

Use the project management tools for:

• Brainstorming and idea gathering: allows you to start Forums or Whiteboards with ideas and those are emailed to your team for them to edit or comment.
• Projects with internal or external deadlines: you can set timelines, assign responsibilities, assign major and sub-tasks.
• Co-authorship on documents that will not reside in an online format (but in Word or PowerPoint). The Arkansas pro bono manual is being created online and will end up being online. Perfect use for a wiki. If I’m writing a grant narrative however that needs to be formatted in Word at some point, starting it on a wiki will require reformatting at some later point. Better to create it in Word, use the project management system to upload it, and have others make their changes in Word and repost to the management tool.

Use wikis for:

• Online manual creation of content that will remain online.

• Storing information that will change quickly or be added frequently (passwords, how tos, informal policies).
• Shared space for documents and information that does not need to be tracked by deadlines, but is better in one space you organize yourself. On a wiki, I can create a page that has a bunch of information organized how I want someone to see it. On a project management tool, it organizes it for me by milestones, tasks, forums/whiteboards, etc. So, I might use a wiki to hold all the information relevant to affordable housing strategies as a way, rather than a project management system.

 

 

Wiki versus Statewide Website
Your statewide website for advocates envisions itself to be a place where advocate content, resources, trainings, events, and other information is posted and used by advocates across the state. A wiki can often be a statewide website’s younger sister. She’s good for drafts and revisions, upon completion may be posted to the statewide website. The wiki is a good place to spawn collaborative authorship, like on a manual too.