Hire A Gardener for Your Wiki

Once you have parameters for what the wiki will accomplish, create a plan that details who will be responsible for what.

Someone has to be in charge. Brainard says that whoever is leading the effort needs to "get buy-in from key players to help set up the structure." Those core people will be "gardeners" who help the wiki grow, maintain it and help new users, says Brainard.

There may be five people who talk during the development stage of the wiki, and maybe they will all be administrators of the wiki once it launches. Assign just one or two people to the position of "gardener." Once the wiki is open to the entire company, the gardeners should keep a close eye on its expansion.

"Maintenance is critical," says library technologist Jessamyn West, who has created wikis, and describes herself as a happy end user of many wikis. "The person building the wiki needs an organizational sense of how to present the information or no one will be able to find anything."

Pitfall to avoid: You don't want your wiki to be just a dumping ground for information. A wiki is not meant only to be used for storage, it's meant to encourage conversations and dialogue, and to be a reference tool. The gardener should not be shy about pruning.

Decide on Tools for Your Wiki

You need to decide how to build the wiki, and whether you will spend money to build it.

Companies like Socialtext help companies structure, deploy and maintain their wikis via appliances, hosted service and software. Socialtext has set up and tracked wikis for organizations like Boston College, Epitaph Records and IKEA. Other vendors like BrainKeeper direct companies in creating a wiki that will encourage knowledge sharing, and many corporations find their guidance valuable.

But that's not mandatory. As technology librarian West says, "Why buy software when all the things you need are free?"

Free hosted wikis like WetPaint allow anyone to easily build a collaborative website. WetPaint includes features like video integration, customizable templates, profiles for users, address book upload, and version control that allows you to refer back to an earlier iteration of any page.

If a group of employees goes the free, do-it-yourself (DIY) route, they can create and maintain their wiki, for, say, a short-term project without needing to get IT involved. Plus, says West, "it's empowering to see what you can do on your own. Some tools are often so user-friendly that, if you can use Word, you can use them."

Pitfall to avoid: Don't go the DIY route just because its free. Similarly, don't jump into a contract agreement because you think having a vendor host your wiki will be easier.