Comments on: Wikis are Not Knowledge Management Tools

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Wed, 06 Feb 2008 02:38:24 +0000

[...] But “knowledge management” is part of the problem, not part of the solution, or, as Zoli eloquently put it in a post in his blog 12 months ago: The real story is not about a better tool, but being able to work differently. When wikis are [...]

By: InTheCrapHole

InTheCrapHole — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 13:58:38 +0000

I have a boss who is incompetent, and his favorite crutch to use when a solution isn’t obvious is to propose: “We need to development some kind of smart tool that will…” perform magic. So recently he wanted a wiki. We all have to tell him over and over that “someone” is going to have to put thought into the articles and “someone” is going to have to thoughtfully link them. But he insists that this tool (and others) are some kind of artificial intellegence system that will solve all our problems – and that’s what he tells his boss.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:30:25 +0000

I agree that Knowledge Management Software is going to say bye-bye to us. Or rather we are going to say bye-bye to it. It's very complicated, very difficult to maintain, update and structure. It is the hell on earth for a system administrator. And the costs... In-justifiable, since with a web connection you have access to online knowledge data-bases created, maintained and updated by thousands of people. --- Arizona PEOs. For successful businesses.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:33:44 +0000

wiki is not ideal KM tool but it has kept the premises of potential KM tool's for many businesses, i have been working with some blue chip companies and no doubt wiki has inspired them to start same sort of reasonably inexpensive KM tool inside companies

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:24:18 +0000

Aaron,

Thanks for your comment. I’ve updated the post with a link to MindTouch. Originally I wanted to “protect” the source as I did not want this to become a debate with MindTouch.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:15:07 +0000

Everything old is new again.

You can make the case that wikis have/will make KM software tools obsolete. In fact, this is even implied in the paper you reference. However, every effective KM strategy involves proactive, real-time, knowledge gathering as well as “after-the-fact collection”. I think you may be referencing failed or poor KM initiatives if you think they only consist of “after-the-fact collection”.

It seems to me we’re trying to make this into the “new great thing” instead of realizing, like most things, this is actually a really old technology. Wikis are really nothing more than 2nd generation hypermedia. Vannevar Bush, right? There have been deployments of similar technologies in KM for quite a while. It’s just with open source and other improvements in software engineering this technology has become more accessible (cheaper and easier).

Everything old is new again. I remember when I first was introduced to Pi Calculus for use in a ‘new’ programming language for highly distributed and concurrent systems. I thought: WOW, no one has ever done this before, we’re doing something completely different. Then I discovered Tony Hoare and I realized, well this Pi stuff is simpler, sure, but not new. I know it’s silly I hadn’t read up on Tony Hoare. I just hadn’t been introduced to him for some strange reason.

Anyhow, I always find it amusing how people think they’re breaking new ground or pioneering when all they’re doing is rehashing what others were doing more than 70 years ago. This is especially amusing when the person is only creating new terms for old things and they don’t even realize it, a la “MK,” that’s silly.

You may consider citing the source of that paper you reference or even provide an URL.

Finally, keep up the good work Zoli.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:13:26 +0000

You are absolutely right about “The real story is not about a better tool, but being able to work differently.” I’ve been involved in knowledge sharing, collaborative projects for 30 years. At first, with mechanical typewriters and photocopying expensive and not always easily available, we made “double double spaces” between the lines and used carbon copies. Coping with typos was a pain in the neck, sure, but what really mattered then too was already “being able to work differently”.

Later, computer editing allowed visible modifications and comments: great, but it could lead to crazy-pavement visual results. Still, what mattered was “being able to work differently”. Same with some intranets that allowed versioning, like mayeticvillage.

Wikis and other versioning apps won’t make people share knowledge and collaborate if they aren’t inclined to. But if they are, they are damned useful.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:01:39 +0000

I just realized the extent this article reaches in terms of the usefulness of corporate wikis. Basically, I do agree with the basic tenet of the article: once a wiki is embraced as the tool where business operations are conducted on a daily basis, KM automatically follows.

The point is, embracing the wiki way in the first place is the really difficult step to take. I have been working with companies that, although they truly embrace the idea of using a wiki as the primary space where work is done, fail to effectively pursue the process to its full extent.

Hence my conclusion will be: you’re absolutely right, but the gap to cross in order to fully profit from the benefits of using a corporate wiki is yet to be in most cases. The cultural shift has not taken place yet, although the spread of the Web 2.0 participative mentality should eventually help the evolution to take place.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:25:44 +0000

Mr. Erdos, I have not read your bio and thus don’t know if you ever experienced first hand the woes of organizational knowledge management. But to espouse like you do here the idea that wikis are the solution to the problem reeks of everything that’s so amateurish about web 2.0 hype. how do wikis solve the problem of the politics of knowledge? how do wikis solve the problem of people too busy in their primary functions to share their knowledge? how do wikis solve the problems of asking and getting answers in natural language, from the relevant sources? your talk here, I’m afraid, is plain IT rant. software is not the solution to everything. wikis are not the solution, in and of themselves, to KM. no software alone is. Only as part of a strategic plan that includes organizational cultural guidelines (which in most orgs amount to a paradigm shift) and only with other IT tools can wikis become truly relevant.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:30:29 +0000

No, Wiki is NOT a complete KM tool. We have to integrate the wiki to any of the KM tool and then have make it work as a front end application.

Wiki is just a platform, like Lotus Notes’ QuickPlace, where people can go and create the explicit knowledge. But with the help of Wikis, its easy to capture the tacit knowledge of the organisation.

Regards

~Harsha