Larry Cannell explains the inherent weakness in files as the primary container for information:

I don’t even want files. What I want is the information stored in a file. I have been thinking about files and documents lately and I have come to the conclusion that our reliance on the computer file as the primary structure for storing our digital “stuff” is hurting us in ways we cannot see. This is holding us back from realizing truly breakthrough capabilities.

Files must be pushed out to people, and each person makes changes in isolation from others. The resulting revisions must be combined – and differences resolved – which can lead to disagreements, misunderstandings, and corrections. This can prolong the development of critical products like proposals, reports, technical documentation, and anything else that needs to be produced by many people in a short time period.

A wiki pulls those same people in to work on information in a shared space where one always sees the most up to date version – the product of all previous revisions. This eliminates the reconciliation of competing or conflicting changes, since they’re dealt with during the revision process. That’s the part of collaboration that’s otherwise the least collaborative, least productive, and most damaging to the social fabric of work groups.

Larry Cannell writes about a recent CIO Magazine interview in which Ross Mayfield discussed 4 common wiki uses that can reduce email. Here are Ross’ four examples, and my suggested Wiki patterns that can help you with each:

1. Collaborative intelligence – “for example, in marketing and sales operations, you need to communicate to the field organization about an ever changing product line.” The pattern I’d use here is Magnet to establish a wiki as the “go-to” place for people out in the field.
2. Participatory knowledge base – “99 percent of the pages created [on the wiki] and tagged allow the call center to go from 20 clicks to find information to four, substantially decreasing search costs and decreasing the average call time by 10 to 20 percent.” I’d use the FAQ and Seed it with content patterns here.
3. Flexible client collaboration – “a collaborative workspace between [a firm] and the client.” Agenda is a good pattern for using the wiki to organize meetings with clients, and kickstart client collaboration.
4. Business social networks – “with your business partners or customers, where you’re communicating to them, getting feedback from them, and they’re interacting directly.” I’d use the Corporate Directory and MySpace patterns as the building blocks of a social network.

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!)

A “Science Fair” is a great way for people using wikis to get together – regardless of what they work on – and share how they work:

How can you use incenties and recognition to grow wiki use? Here are 3 ways – gifts, recognition from leadership, & employee evaluations:

Once you get wiki use started, be firm and make sure people don’t drift back to earlier means of collaboration:

A WikiCharter is a set of guidelines to ensure productive interaction between members of your wiki community. Here are five guidelines from the Sony Ericsson Developer World wiki:

Who should see it? Who shouldn’t? Who should be able to edit it? Who shouldn’t? These are legitimate questions people ask when first thinking about how to use a wiki. Here’s the answer you should use the first time-and every time-you add information to your wiki:

Is someone in your organization afraid to share knowledge on the wiki? Here’s how to help:

Establishing a request procedure for wiki spaces helps you manage demand and growth. It also helps new wiki users identify their needs for a wiki space, and it’s the foundation for a retention policy that keeps wiki content fresh and active: