[WikiEN-l] Questions regarding Wikipedia users' motivation

[Todd Allen]

On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 3:29 PM, Mehrotra, Niki (US - Chicago)
<nmehrotra at deloitte.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I am new to Wikipedia and am involved in an organization that wishes to
> incorporate wiki-style features into an existing internal collaboration
> tool.  I have looked into Wikipedia's structure and understand that all
> processes related to quality control are completely self-driven on the
> part of its contributors.  What do you think motivates the average user
> to contribute as much as he or she does?  What incentive do the
> individuals have to devote much of their time to monitor pages?  One of
> our challenges will be getting our organization's members to use the
> wiki once we roll it out. Thank you for your time and help.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Niki
>
>
>
>
>
> Niki Mehrotra
> Enterprise Applications
> Deloitte Consulting LLP
>
> Tel: +1 312 486 1746
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> Mobile: + 1 847 946 2225
> nmehrotra at deloitte.com
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A good base of content that's useful to your employees may also be
helpful, especially if it can be placed into the wiki before it goes
fully live. If the habit of "go to the wiki for the latest
information" can be established, the habit of "post the latest
information there" follows much more naturally. You'll also need
training, as has been mentioned above, and don't forget to emphasize
anything that should -not- be placed in the wiki, such as confidential
information intended only for certain people or personal
communications of little use to anyone but the recipient(s). Ideally,
information placed in your wiki should be usable by multiple people
who may also have need to update it.

As stated above, an internal wiki will be different from an
all-volunteer project. Not all of these differences are negative-an
internal wiki will suffer little or no malicious editing or vandalism,
unlike one open to the public at large, and anyone in the organization
who does do so can be easily held accountable. Also unlike Wikipedia,
those suited to developing the wiki can be required to do so, as
opposed to an all-volunteer project where one contributes when and
where one decides.

-- 
Freedom is the right to say that 2+2=4. From this all else follows.