The Dirty Wiki

Jason Bates wrote about The Empty Wiki in a previous post, but I’d like to point out another problem with wikis (those that aren’t empty anyway):  The power of the special interest group…

A wiki is a repository of knowledge that is valuable to the contributor to contribute, rather than most value to the reader.  While a good wiki platform will have processes for discussing differing points of view, and policies to guide contributors, in reality the special interest group will usually win.

For example:  A wiki is implemented to support administrators calculating pension entitlements.  Management supports the growth of the Wiki content by including wiki contribution into the annual performance appraisal.  As the knowledge begins to get formalised, one group of administrators discovers that it has been calculating the pensions incorrectly – for years! What do they do? 

We have a special interest group:  They are motivated because the consequences of being wrong are career threatening.  So they work hard to ensure that the wiki documentation supports both their interpretation of the policy and the official one.  So the error is propegated – and worse, it is formalised!

Another example:  In Wikipedia, there is a page on subject called “Socionomics”.  It was deleted on 2 February, because the majority of editors believed it was a vanity page for the author of the book of the same name.  It’s back!  Reinstated on the 28^th of June.

Update: Just had this link about wiki content brought to my attention.

— Philip Greenwood

 

 

Tags: Wiki