Some people don’t understand or don’t like the idea of wikis. They will resist any effort to even start a wiki project. Typically this happens in organizations where there are no wikis set up. Arguments against wikis range from “why not use emails instead?” to “there’s already a document repository on the server”, “but I’m the owner of this information, and I will lose the ownership”, or “vandals will be able to screw up the wiki.”

A Critic is someone who expresses resistance to using a new knowledge sharing and collaboration tool. Often, the critic will point out what they perceive as deficiencies of the wiki approach and exalting the powers of a ‘full featured webpage’, ‘web application’, or existing intranet. They tend to attack specific deficiencies and differences, and use these to subvert the success of the wiki.

Symptoms

There’s resistance at either management or IT level. Typically this happens in document-oriented organizations where ownership is sacred. Many Wikiphobic people will print their emails and documents as they fear that these may get deleted, so the idea of online collaboration is completely out of the question.

A Critic might say things like:

• But we’ve just spent three years and $$$$ building an Intranet for this content., why do we need a Wiki?
• There are certain documents that you don’t want to let just anyone edit. Why put those on a wiki?
• You can’t make production quality webpages using a wiki platform.
• You can’t make a fully functional web portal on a wiki platform.

Cause

The boundary between those who provide ‘content’ and those who provide ‘function’ in web pages has been moved by wiki technology (previously, a web “developer” actually controlled the gate on content!). The number, and types, of people that your organization needs to support making simple ‘content’ changes in ‘web pages’ has decreased, and people invested in that activity will resist that change.

Resolution

Wiki has a niche, as do the other intranet technologies. To make a niche, you may displace some organisms along the boundaries, but you also create new opportunities for others.

• Show the Critic how much their experience building ‘functional’ information resources is even more in need now that there are exponentially more authors, and show them how they can take on a Champion or Gardener role to apply their experience to the wiki.
• Demonstrate additional metrics the Critic can highlight, in addition to their familiar ‘number of visitors’, such as ‘most collaborative page’, most active authors
• Propose that they retain a ‘publish’ control, but increase their responsibility (or SLA) to publish content from ANYONE in the organization in a timely manner. They will soon be overwhelmed by the amount of participation that they simply ‘approve’ without comment or even review, and by that point, they may be more comfortable with the system.
• Engage the Critic to address and be accountable for the company’s knolwedge innovation or collaboration objectives
• Show how the wiki can seamlessly integrate with their ‘baby’, but offer additional functionality that they would not have the resources to re-invent or re-implement themselves

Further Reading

• Wikiphobia – Urban Dictionary