Explaining wikis

One thing we struggle with on a regular basis is explaining wikis to our clients (particularly potential clients!) If ever there was an application that has an “ah-ha!” moment it’s a wiki. There just seems to be some built-in mental block that we’re either born with or acquire from somewhere that web pages Can’t Musn’t Won’t Be Changed.

Which is ridiculous when you think about it - why should a web page be any different from a document, or a whiteboard, or a spreadsheet? We think nothing of scribbling with a marker, or tweaking the numbers, or editing the words. So why is there this mental block around make a change on a wiki page?

And when people get the concept, I swear you can sit on the other side of the conference table and see the light bulb go on. In fact we’ve ended up referring to ‘Ah-ha!’ meetings - it’s the point in our relationship with the client where wikis suddenly become a potential solution to some of their problems.

We’ve used a variety of language to try and explain our way around this block - mainly using analogies like whiteboards and spreadsheets and documents. With varying success, it has to be said - but one thing we’ve not done so far is tell a story.

This morning I came across this post at Monkey Magic. It’s someone who’s having exactly the same problem as we are - and they got the point across with a story:

The moral of the story (which doesn’t really need saying): its better to start with a load of old crap than aim for an idealised version.

I’ll use this the next time I need to explain a wiki.