Implementing Wikis in Knowledge and Information Centers: An Overview

Abstract: Somewhere around 1994 a man named Ward Cunningham began development of a new program called WikiWikiWeb. Ward intended his program to be an unstructured database that could be easily added to, viewed, and updated. His idea was to make creating and sharing as easy as possible. Luckily for us, Ward believed is sharing his concepts and ideas. This paper explores how wikis can be implemented in knowledge and information centres to manage knowledge and why they should be used in this environment. The paper begins with a definition of wikis, followed by a description of how they work and a brief discussion of the different types of wikis and its advantages and disadvantages. Then, the paper covers knowledge management and the systems that support knowledge management, specifically collaborative and conversational technologies. Then how wikis can be used to support knowledge management in library & information services with some examples of wikis as both private and public knowledge repositories and as collaborative workspaces. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of a complementary technology that can enhance the effectiveness of wikis as a knowledge management tool