Technology As Innovator

Friend: “Hey Tai, what is wiki? Is it a software or a website?”

TaiTran: “Neither. Wiki is a concept. It refers to a content which everyone and anyone can edit.”

Friend: “What? You’re confusing me!”

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OK, so let me go into details on Wiki.

“Wiki” is a concept

“A wiki” might be explained as a computer software or a website. “Wiki” is a concept.

What’s the difference?

You may want to notice this difference: “A Wiki is a software/website” and “Wiki (without ‘a’) is a concept”. “A wiki” refers to a specific instance of the concept “Wiki”.

To make it easier to understand. It’s like we talk about “a person” and “person”. “Person” is general, has body organs, has character and personalities - but doesn’t have specific character and personalities. “A person named X” is specific, has X’ body organs, has X” character and X”’ personality.

Back to Wiki. So I say “Wiki is a concept. It refers to contents which everyone and anyone can edit.”

Basing on this concept, people may build Wiki software that put this concept into practice. Wiki software allows users to create different wiki websites.

Wiki is powerful

1. Collaboration

The major power of Wiki lies in its open nature to collaboration.

Anyone can edit Wikis, and it’s quick to do so. We have the power of the mass where every contribution is counted. That’s how within a short amount of time, the community has grown Wikipedia to be the world’s largest encyclopedia.

Does this work?

To some, the idea of “anyone can edit” is crazy. But it works!

You want to know that the edition doesn’t go away easily. All modifications are tracked and they are discussed by the whole community. If person A puts in an inaccurate or biased information, person B will point it out and the discussion will determine how to deal with that information.

While I agree that we can never have perfectly unbiased information, this open nature allows the whole community to reach a consensus that would benefit all.

“I’m a genius. They don’t understand what I wrote in the wiki so they removed it!” - Well if this is the case, I’d suggest you revert to your blog or your Knol whether you have full authority

2. High Linkage

Wiki pages within a wiki website link to one another through keywords. Therefore, when you read a wiki page, you are presented with information to other worth-knowing concepts.

Wiki management models

Power of the Mass

“No editor”, or “everyone is an editor”.

This is the original concept of Wiki. However, you may want to know that this is an idealism and no wiki is perfectly wiki.

People participation varies, people commitment varies, and people behavior varies. There may exist certain bias in many wiki pages.

Because of this “open” nature, many question the validity and authority of information on wiki. Researchers may need to cite from other sources accepted as “more authorized”.

Power of Authority… plus the Mass

To deal with the issue of validity and authority of wiki, Larry Sanger, former Wikipedia co-founder, has initiated a new model for Citizendium.

“Authorized editors are selected to be editors of Citizendium. The site is still open for everyone to edit.”

This model harmonizes the credentials from editors while still utilize the power of the mass.

Wiki in enterprise

Wiki is useful to teams within an enterprise to centralize their knowledge. Of course, people can write separate documents, but it will be hard to avoid duplication, hard to maintain and hard to search. Wiki solves all these 3 issues.

In Sum

Wiki is a powerful concept on which people in the last decade have built centralized massive amount of information.

Bibliography

5 ways to build effective Wikis

Wiki Software: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software

List of Wikis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis

“The way to a scientist’s mind is not through his eyes, but his inventions.” - Tai Tran

A Scientist drives his energy into making the best out of Legacies. He strives to understand concepts, then with his creativity and tremendous imagination, forms an Idea.

However, a Scientist rarely communicates his Idea, only to his science fellows if he does. What makes a Scientist different from a Theorist lies in the fact that the Scientist’s primary interest is to apply, more than merely comprehend. A Scientist doesn’t feel comfortable to publicize an abstract idea which he regards raw, less valuable and unready. Instead, a Scientist is driven to build a System, which is usually explainable to and workable on civilizations, on top of his Idea. The System can be seen as a facade to his supporting Ideas and Principles.

After a System is built, the Scientist invites entrepreneurs to apply his System by transforming it into Business; usually Scientists understand very well what they are not adept in: making money. The fact that his System is being used, and that his dedication is recognized and respected by the science bodies has been the best reward for our Scientist.

Best Practice is a concept asserts that with proper processes, techniques and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices aim at optimizing procedures to the highest possible level of efficiency.

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A system can be broken down to features vertically and releases horizontally. Successively, features and business rules are shaped by Uses Cases. At the bottom line, a Use Case describes one best way to accomplish a goal. By writing Use Cases, Business Analysts are dealing with one major dimension of Best Practice everyday.