Socializing your web site with wikis, twikis, and blogs.(web site management methods using webcasting)

Publication: Online

Publication Date: 01-NOV-05

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Collaboration, working jointly with others, can take many forms. It is rapidly becoming the preferred method of working in many organizations. However, some tools are better suited than others to facilitate online collaboration. Blogs and wikis are two newer technologies rapidly making inroads in the workplace. Other technologies to differentiate among include team workspaces and Web conferencing. Then there's Webcasting versus podcasting.

Online collaboration is not completely new. My first experience with it was many years ago when I managed several bulletin board systems, or BBSs, as they were called. Accessed via telnet, users would post, read, and share information. Functionality was limited, but even in its rather cryptic form, it served as a gathering place to facilitate the free exchange of ideas and information around a specific topic. It was a social phenomenon for its time. The sophistication of the online tools improved as the need for collaboration grew. Virtual communities formed up around BBSs with compelling content and active participants.

Collaborative technologies are becoming a critical component to many Web sites--Internet, intranet, and extranet--allowing customers, business partners, and employees to easily communicate and share ideas and information. Often referred to as social software, the new generation of collaborative tools is clearly changing the way we use our Web sites. With so many to choose from, it's difficult to know which to adopt. Like so many things Web, it's challenging to muddle through all the hype to understand the true value of some of these tools. This is especially true when the language describing them sounds more like an upcoming Star Wars movie (with blogs, twiki, swiki, and podwars in our vocabulary, can Wookies and Ewoks be far behind?), and less like a serious business tool.

HIGH-TECH, HIGH-TOUCH: HOW FAR WE'VE COME

The precursors to social software, in addition to BBSs, were newsgroups, discussion forums, and electronic mailing lists. Still in use today, these tools...

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