The nine-letter word that determines wiki success
Michel Benard (English translation) recently reviewed the Wikipatterns book, and in his comparison of the wiki to more traditional content management systems, he said:
…the wiki is characterized by an almost complete lack of structure, which is one reason that facilitates contributions to a wiki, and explains its success.
The thing to remember here is that a wiki starts with a lack of structure so that its users can define the structure that best serves their needs.
That’s what makes it so successful. People don’t have to learn a new structure, and fit their work into that structure, which is automatically limiting. Instead, they can focus on their work, and build a structure as they go - one that evolves with their information and doesn’t get in the way!
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with the new learning-curve that the book is providing !" on 
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Sacha Chua
I suspect that wikis need more structure than most people think they need, and that makes me want to learn more about information architecture. (That, and affordances in open spaces…)
Feb 27th, 2008
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