European Chamber of Commerce Taipei - European Chamber of Commerce Taipei

On 31 March, Thomas Siegers, Founder and Managing Director at Songfuli gave a presentation on the benefits for companies of using Wikis for policies, guidelines, documentation, project management, staff and customer collaboration and many more applications.

In his presentation, Siegers demonstrated how to set up and use a Wiki and how they can help save time and money and improve workflows.

•    The Wiki, which is the native Haiwaian word for fast, was invented in 1994 and is a collection of web pages which allows authors to read, write and edit articles. Wikis run on a browser, which means there is no need to install special software to run them.

•    The Wiki’s most popular manifestation is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia but more and more organisations are now using them.

•    Wikis can be used for collaboration (anything from schedules to marketing to legal case projects), documentation, creating websites, content management systems and blogs. They can be customized for intranets and specific permissions and be integrated with other services if necessary.

•    There are a number of benefits to Wikis: They reduce emails (it is estimated that the average office worker spends up to 25% of his/her time reading, processing and writing emails). They can keep data content up to date and in a central location accessible to all. This improves efficiency, flexibility, usability and transparency. Information is also secure since previous versions of content are always saved and can be restored in the case of errors or corruption. Moreover, since most Wikis are open source and easy to use, they cost nothing to install and require little training to learn to use.

•    Siegers gave a number of tips for organisations thinking of implementing a Wiki: It is best to make it a grass-roots rather than a top-down endeavour in order to get as many people as possible to participate. Moreover, to get things started it is a good idea to put some content exclusively on the Wiki - something fun or that everyone is interested in will attract more interest. Wikis should also not be rushed. There should also be few rules at the beginning to encourage participation.