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Wikis as a knowledge management tool

Tay Pei Lyn Grace (Graduate Student at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 17 July 2009

8980

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide organizations which are keen to implement wikis with insight into its usefulness and possible role in the knowledge sharing and management process through lessons learnt from implementation of wikis by organizations ranging from SMEs with less than ten users to those with a vast network of 193 million members. These organizations are from the non‐technology as well as technology‐based sectors.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper takes the form of a general review. It provides a background into the advent of wikis and briefly discusses related work on use of Wikis in corporate, public and educational context. This is followed by review of three case studies carried out on implementation of wikis and an analysis of the review.

Findings

The review proposes a framework for the wiki adoption process which may be used as a guide for in future adoption by organizations. It also found that some benefits which move these organizations towards the usage of wikis include its ease of use, ability to track and edit, its influence on the building of a trusting culture and as a central repository of information. One significant and tangible benefit from the use of wikis is its ability to save time and therefore, money. Issues to be addressed include security, control as well as technical issues such as data migration.

Research limitations/implications

The paper presents examples based on case studies conducted by other authors and a framework based on the observation of the key push factors and commonalities among the cases. Further empirical testing is needed to demonstrate the framework introduced in this paper.

Originality/value

The paper suggests that wikis may be the key to a viable and usable knowledge management tool due to its ease of use and collaborative nature, which ultimately leads to time and cost savings. A preliminary framework to represent the implementation flow of a wiki is also presented and may serve as a guide for organizations considering the use of wikis as a knowledge management tool.

Keywords

Citation

Pei Lyn Grace, T. (2009), "Wikis as a knowledge management tool", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 64-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270910971833

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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