Wikis: the territories of collective intelligence

Introduction

The book you are holding is unfinished. As a matter of fact, it is meant to be, and we count on your contribution to enhance it. You are invited to be a co-author of the book. Yet, the topic we propose to you is very well defined : wikis, namely collaborative Internet sites, which are increasingly popular over the Net but have remained so far mysterious for most Internet surfers. Our ambition is to make you know, understand, use and eventually love them !

A wiki is an Internet site a little bit particular : it abolishes the distance between the reader and the producer of information. When you are visiting a wiki, you can at any time react to its content by clicking on the " Edit this page " link or button that you will find on the page. The latter will then open in edition mode, allowing you to modify or complete it at will. When you are done, you can click on " Save changes ". The page will be immediately saved under a new version. You will have instantly and with no control updated the site. From visitor, you will have turned to contributor.

The main novelty of wikis relies on this total freedom of writing and on the trust that is granted a priori to Net surfers. The rationale behind this is to avoid any kind of censure. The bet is that good will is widespread over the Internet, and exceeds by far meanness or stupidity. Wiki supporters advocate that a collective intelligence is possible, just as what happens among honeybees or ants colonies. Hence, it would be possible to collectively produce content or reach process excellence in a way that could only be dreamt of before. In other words, the more, the smarter.

The rise of wikis is not fortuitous ; on the contrary, it can be spotted in a precise chronology. All started with the development of the Internet in the early 90s. Databases long reserved to experts or researchers have become available to all. All of a sudden, it became possible for anyone to access a virtual Alexandria library without even going out. More recently, broadband connections have made Internet a commodity as available as electricity or tap water, at least in the developed world. The most complex knowledge, as well as the myriad of daily anecdotes, have been put within reach of anyone, any time. A new community was born : Net surfers, in a new, virtual world some called Cyberworld. Not only hyperlinks have been created there, but also human links, sometimes deep. Ideas and to some extent emotions have been able to travel along the information highways, through sophisticated technological tools (browsers, instant messengers, webcams…).

As the Internet was adopted by a broader audience, computer specialists gathered in smaller communities to share their knowledge about often very complex topics. Ward Cunningham, a programmer from the Portland area, was one of them. He imagined Wiki to collect and share experiences on his research field, Extreme Programming. Wikis stayed for a while a collaborative tool used only by a few geeks. But recently, other human groups have started playing with it, and have discovered a wide scope of applications. These human groups include but are not limited to: associations and foundations, corporations, schools and universities, and many other virtual communities.

This groups have started creating wikis to dialog and exchange knowledge, in a free and a priori non structured way. Some of them opted for members-only access while others opened the door wide to all Internet surfers, with no obligation to register and login.

Because of the growing popularity of wikis, we need to ask ourselves a few new questions. The underlying philosophy is to give a voice to all contributors on an equal level, and to foster creativity. A wiki can be compared to an immense white wall, on which anyone can write, draw, tag, comment and " erase ". What is the meaning of all this information, often anonymous, that can be altered (in two senses: modified but also damaged) at any time ? Who would believe everything written on a wall ?

Let us now imagine an infinite white wall, growing in length at each new contribution, on which anyone (and we mean anyone) could write as he likes. What would the result be ? A big hot pot of disorganized tags or a collective meaning that would never have arisen under the traditional ways of expression ?

Besides, is a wiki trustworthy ? Is it possible to query it for information, or even knowledge ? At any rates, it requires constant prudence and critical mind. Let us assume that you ignore everything about a topic and that your searches in traditional encyclopedias, libraries, good reputation Internet sites, brought nothing. Here comes a wiki extensively covering the topic of interest to you. You start reading it, and it happens what you read makes perfect sense ; some sources are indicated for further references. Part of them are reachable online, some others are not. As a summary, the wiki brings you a meaningful content, relying on partially available sources, signed by someone whose identity you cannot check, or maybe not even signed. What should you do ? Will you just discard what you read ? Or will you consider it as likely, use it to make whatever urgent decisions or reasoning assumptions you have to make, and doublecheck it with other sources at a later time ? With wikis, Internet credibility is at question again in a brand new way.

But there is another aspect. Wikis open a space of popular freedom, where everyone can have his say, bring testimonies from his/her local experience, from the reality he directly perceives, unaltered by the media's prism. In our world where the media do and undo political fates and ambition to become the director of reality through so-called real-TV, it seems quite reassuring that new public spaces appear for the "really-real" people to express themselves. Wikis belong to that categories of tools allowing all of us to share our feelings and thoughts.

In corporations, wikis can also be used as workspaces to structure teams, manage projects, organize brainstorming, etc. Yet, if everyone can talk all the time, some initial training is necessary to avoid mayhem, and keep the benefits of freedom without the drawbacks. Wikis are quick and as such can relieve the company from the hierarchical burden of bureaucracy. But then, how to convince managers who could be scared of losing control ?

This book aims at providing the reader with the necessary information to help him find his/her own answers. In the process, we want to initiate a dialog with him on the wiki that will come with the book. Our main objective is to explain what a wiki is, with significant examples. The book will analyze the WikiPhilosophy and how we can be part of it. An entire chapter will be dedicated to the creation and animation of a wiki, through a step-by-step approach. Secondly, the book will describe how wikis are already used in several economic and social fields : associations, schools, businesses…While discussing this uses, we will try when necessary to understand what wikis change in the way we deal with communication, information and group dynamics. Finally, we will study the social impacts of wikis. Indeed, they have a unique way of combining virtual communities and real-world sociability and it is quite appealing to understand what links together people around that work tool. We will see also the possible legal issues regarding Intellectual property rights and liabilities.

We hope that you will enjoy reading the book as much as we enjoyed writing it. Like on a wiki, you can add your own comments in the blank spaces left on each page. You can also select your own entries for the index at the end of the book, and complement it with your own words. We tried to make this physical book as close as possible as what you will find of a wiki. Feel free to share with us and other readers your comments, analyses and experiences of wikis on the online wiki set up to that end: www.xxxx.com . You have just entered the WikiSphere, a world where cooperation is the key. Enjoy the ride!

I am interested in online cooperation : I want to know more!