Users
"Gartner predicts that wikis – such as the popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia – should become commonplace in at least 50 percent of enterprises worldwide within the next four years." – Aaron Tan: Embrace collaboration tools or fall behind, says expert. ZDNet Asia. June 07 2005
Today numerous well known enterprises use wiki technology. Aim of the survey "Wikis in Enterprises" is among others the examination of the factors that influence this decision. For example this can be the affiliation to a business sector, the size of an enterprise, the listing or the outsourcing of IT activities. Dependencies between theese factors are also interesting.
A range of enterprises using wiki technology:
Accenture, Adobe, Airbus, Alcatel, AOL, Apple, BBC, Belnet, BMW, Boeing, Borland, Bosch, British Telecom, CERN, Cisco, Citigroup, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Bank, Earthlink, Eurospace, Expedia, Gartner, Lockhead Martin, Logitech, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Novell, nVidia, Pixar, Siemens, Sony, Sun Microsystems, SAP, Symantec, T-Systems, Toshiba, Vodafone, Volvo, Walt Disney, Web.de, Yahoo!
Intention
Because of their open concept wikis are suited for a multitude of scenarios. For instance, this includes the use of wikis ...
- as documentation,
- as reference work,
- as project planning tool,
- as discussion platform,
- or as e-learning platform.
Motivation
One of the goals of the survey is the examination of the reasons which lead to the decision to use a wiki for a given purpose. Typical reasons are for example:
- Financial reasons
- Simplicity of use
- Simple/fast implementation
- Repeating the "Wikipedia success" inside the enterprise
- Contained version history