Wikis For Dummies®

Chapter 9. Attracting Users to Your Wiki

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Wiki don’ts

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Wiki do’s

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Wikis in the community and office

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The wiki life cycle

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As we show throughout this book, wikis are a great way to create and share information in an organization or group. You set up your wiki, open the doors, and — like an expectant shopkeeper — keep looking out the window for wiki customers. But where are they? And why aren’t they wiki-ing?

Remember that new technologies take time to understand and (most importantly) accept. Imagine the early skeptical days of movable type, radio, telegraph, television, and microwave ovens. Now, those technologies are part of everyday life. A wiki is similar. It looks like something that everyone understands — a word processor document — but follows a strange set of new and odd rules. Anyone can edit one? Anyone can erase anything in one? How can that be useful?

This chapter shows you how to attract users. To attract users to your wiki, have your elevator pitch ready — a multisecond description of the project and its values. You can say something like, “With our wiki, we now have a great repository for all the Widget Sales Support information. I bet you want access.” Those interested in both Widgets and Sales Support will probably jump at the chance. The folks in the Widget factory might not. But first, we talk about how not to attract users to your ...