Think about why you need the wiki, who has time to devote to it and how long you intend to be contributing to it. Wikimatrix is a site that can help you identify which software is right for you by comparing options according to price, security, support, features and multimedia options. There are a lot of wiki tools out there. Among them are Edit Me, and ThoughtFarmer, neither of which is open source. And of course, Wikipedia itself has a page that compares wiki options both free and for-fee.

If you want a wiki to help manage one project, or if you're a first-time wiki creator or user, you might decide it's worth working with a third-party hosting vendor, who can help you avoid snags. If the wiki has a long life ahead of it, perhaps as a knowledge management tool, you might want to save money and use free online tools. (And reread the section on "Hire a Gardener.")

Decide How to Set Up and Organize Your Wiki

Building a wiki means considering aspects such as what format it should take, what design template to use, how to organize the wiki's headings and lists.

Consider using an auto-generated template to make it easy for users and so all of the pages look the same, says West. "And if you want to make a change to all the pages, you just change the template once," she adds.

Use a header on pages that contain important information so users know what they are looking at. Also, start a list of bookmarks for websites that are valuable reference tools.

Pitfall to avoid: Administrators of the wiki must keep pages and entries clean and orderly, or the wiki won't be useful to anyone and people will stop contributing and referring to it. When you have a list of bookmarks and links, "people always add, but never subtract," says Jessamyn West. "You end up with an appallingly large list and users are unhappy." This is where the gardener comes in: That person should keep the list from becoming unwieldy so it continues to be valuable.

Test Your Wiki With a Limited Group

You should pilot test the wiki with a limited group of users and ask for feedback.

If a marketing team creates a wiki, its members should ask for feedback from colleagues in sales, for example. Other departments might not contribute content to the wiki, but they will benefit from the information available there, so get their feedback. If your wiki will be kept within your department, make sure you have a conversation with employees who will want to use or contribute to it.

Brainard notes that small teams or groups in a company will often bypass IT and start with a wiki appliance or hosted service. If they decide to deploy it enterprisewide, they then involve IT, and integration with current infrastructure becomes more important.

IT executives and managers should keep their ears open about what departments are experimenting with wikis so they know what services they might be called on to support. In many cases, though, a team will create a wiki for itself, and IT won't need to be involved in its creation, launch or support.

Pitfall to avoid: If you are going to the trouble of starting with a small group, don't brush off the group's feedback; it's valuable to the future success of your wiki. Incorporate the comments into the structure and setup of the wiki.