Michael Idinopolous suggests 3 ways to build a participatory knowledgebase using a wiki:

1. Structure by Topic

The whole point of the wiki is its ability to bring people together and connect dots across organizational silos. That won’t happen if you structure the wiki around those very silos.

Here, he argues the wiki shouldn’t mimic the existing organizational structure because that won’t help break down information silos.

I agree with the principle of using the wiki to encourage new connections across the organization, but it does need to start with some resemblance of the existing organizational structure. That gives people confidence in using it. [Read more]

Dusan Writer suggests that the wiki adoption patterns and strategies on Wikipatterns.com can also be applied to virtual worlds:

Wiki Patterns for example, offers a toolkit for companies and communities looking to optimize the use of Wikis. But this toolkit sounds suitable as a “best practices toolkit” for Second Life.

This is a nice little site with lots of nuggets for community and collaborative managers using virtual world platforms, which in some ways are massive, organic, and powerful Wikis themselves (just in 3D!)

James Dellow asks this question in his review of the Wikipatterns book. Based on his experience, he suggests that the patterns can indeed be applied to other collaborative tools beyond wikis:

The book is structured well and steps naturally from explaining the value and use cases of wikis into the adoption process. In terms of adoption, Mader offers 11 steps to a successful wiki pilot… that’s right, these are tips just to get the pilot right! In fact, its refreshing to find someone suggesting that adopting a wiki in an organisation can take a lot more effort than simply plugging a wiki into your corporate LAN.

…my recommendation is that Wiki Patterns is worth a look regardless of the collaborative technologies you are using… there are a set of “patterns” in well written format here that can be applied to a variety of collaborative technologies. Overall, Wikipatterns get a thumbs up from me for anyone involved with collaboration technologies, not just wikis.