Wikis For Dummies®

Chapter 15. Ten Essential Wiki Attitudes

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Collaborating in an easier environment is better

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Receiving feedback on unfinished work

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Being bold, setting examples, and letting it happen

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Having patience: Structure can wait

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Following the community

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The mechanisms of wikis are so simple. After you understand them, it’s hard to fathom how such a small set of functions could have such a large effect. Of course, the simplicity and ease of use of wikis is a big part of the success of the concept. However, another part of the story might be more important: Over and over, groups of people who use the simple mechanisms of wikis become more productive because new attitudes crop up. When faced with a wiki, people make new assumptions that lead to new ways of working and creating huge benefits for millions of people. Here are the ten wiki attitudes that we think are most important.

Shared Authorship

“Look at this great article I wrote,” is a natural thing for any author to say, but it’s also a statement that doesn’t reflect the wiki attitude of shared authorship. Comparatively, “Look at this great article that we created,” is a statement that reflects how most people involved in a wiki feel about the content that was created. This genuine feeling of shared authorship and ownership of the content is something that is profoundly unnatural at ...