A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Wiki

With this blog, I have finally gotten around to publishing some thoughts about wikis.

And just as I have gotten around to it, the trend is for the wiki-as-wiki to bow out in deference to the "collaboration suite" (platforms that have wikis plus other collaborative or social capability).

The blank page of a wiki offers a lot of flexibility, but not always a lot of functionality and structure, or direction for the user.

So in the past year, as adoption of various forms of social software has accelerated, leading wiki platforms have added greater functionality.

Some vendors have added modules such as social networking or a Twitter-like micro-blogging ability. (In addition to adding social software capabilities some have made their wiki functionality stronger and deeper with a better editor, better user interface, more widgets, better extensions, or improved document management.)

Recently when I made a chart comparing eight (mostly) wiki-centric platforms I was able to compare them on these capabilities--because so many of them now had them.

• wiki
• blog
• discussion forums
• rich profile (profile which shows your "activity stream" i.e. contributions you have made)
• social networking
• document storage/search
• Twitter-like micro-blogging
• personal dashboard

Of the platforms I follow most closely, Traction TeamPage currently has all of the above capabilities except social networking, Jive Clearspace, all of the above except microblogging and Socialtext, in a re-designed website as of mid-December, touts all of the above, except forums. Atlassian’s Confluence comes out of the box with enterprise quality wiki and document functionality. I would guess a tech savvy user could build the rest in Confluence--except for microblogging and social networking--using plugins, macros and more. (See this very good webinar for tips on how a discussion forum was built in management and technology consulting firm Bearing Point’s wiki.)

It was in the last half of 2008 that Traction introduced micro-blogging, Socialtext, social networking and a personal dashboard, and Atlassian, the Office Connector which allows you to save Office documents directly into the wiki.

Wiki-centric platforms are evolving fast. Right now, as they add capablities, it looks like they are converging. I wonder, in this tumultuous climate, what we’ll be seeing at the end of 2009.