“Wiki” is one of the buzzwords of a few years ago never really seemed to take off. I think that’s too bad. I like the sound of the word wiki. It just seems fast and convenient. And it’s certainly no more stupid to say “wiki” than “twitter” or “hashtag” (word of the year for 2012) or many of the other terms that now roll off our tongues. Don't believe me? Just take a look at some of the other words that did not succeed as Word of the Year.

Fortunately, although the word wiki has not caught on, the idea of collaborative work spaces really has, with all the usual caveats and concerns: “What if someone changes my stuff?” “Who owns the final product?” “How do I know if anything I read in Wikipedia is true?” Please do chime in if you know the answer to any of those questions.

The wiki that I am most familiar with is PBWorks, which was co-founded by entrepreneur Ramit Sethi who also authored the best-seller I Will Teach You To Be Rich.  The PBWorks staff knows how to use the wiki very effectively as an online training tool. I know. I attended their online “summer camp” in 2009, and it was great. Two thumbs up.

But, here’s the thing: For a wiki – or any other collaborative venture – to work, you have to have willing partners who aren’t afraid of the big old internet.  They have to be ready to give it a try. Few things are more boring than a wiki with no collaborators. Might as well write a blog! In many cases, a wiki can be a blank screen, and few things are more frightening than that.  But it can also include a a template or a built in form. With PBWorks, you can insert spread sheets and all manner of wonderful things to keep the words flowing.

Way back when (speaking in Internet talk now), Professional BoatBuilder had a fabulous online wiki called ProBoat Pilot, with Pilot standing for Products & Information LOcator Tools.  It was hosted on a site called JotSpot, which was good, so good in fact that Google bought it up and closed it down. We paid a consultant to take our product-classification system and set it up online so vendors and customers could connect. Now that would be your high-end wiki, and it actually worked pretty well, until, as I said, Google bought up JotSpot and closed it down.

Since the JotSpot episode, I find that I enjoy anti-Google cartoons more than most people do.

More commonly, wikis are low-end, just great online sites where we can quickly set-up and deploy collaborative work spaces. I use wiki technology a lot in organizing the IBEX seminar program as I work with speakers in writing and editing seminar descriptions. Again, as I've said before about social networking, someone has to be in charge. I think that’s where wikis and many other online ventures fail. One of the basic rules of social networking is that someone has to be the social director. In wikis, someone has to be The Editor. Someone has to make the final decision. So, make sure you've got that determined before you launch your wiki.

For a basic understanding of what a wiki is, I recommend watching the classic video “Wikis Made Simple” from the folks at Common Craft. Common Craft is pretty great. They can also explain zombies and many other topics of concern to you.

Since the long-ago start of the great wiki revolution (again, speaking in Internet talk), I think a lot of brand-name collaborative sites have taken hold, such as Google Docs and MS Office's various online offerings. While not actually wikis, they serve the same purpose in that several people can work on a single document, ideally without stepping all over each other. (I've mentioned Trello here before. You might also want to look sometime at A.nnotate.)

And yet, I suspect that many of us still are taking the long way round, printing our our emails and loading them on to our pack mules.

Ah, well. That's okay. I enjoy seeing you on the trail. If you’d like to take your hand at re-writing this post, here’s your chance. I’ve posted it on a wiki so you can add, delete, and make changes.  I hope you do.