Wikis, wellness and knowledge

There is a growing interest in wikis from business and professional groups. Wikipedia has certainly played a part in promoting this attention, but I wonder if things do not go deeper?.

The ability to build a source or core document, invite comments, accommodate multiple authors, anneal and refactor text, is a powerful form of knowledge related interaction. Building a corpus of information arranged by concepts is very different from blogging where posts scroll off the canvass, replaced by the next thought that comes along.

I'm involved in two projects using wikispaces, wherein the aim is to collect important links, document thoughts and rework existing script to make the experience clearer, deeper and more useful. KmWiki collects my views on knowledge management, serving as a switchyard to interesting KM places on the net and a 'permanent' record of topics that interest me.

Over the last week, I've been helping Dr. Steve Beller publish his very comprehensive white paper on the US Health System called Wellness Wiki. It will be interesting to monitor the interplay between these wikis and our respective  blogs which create a wide community space.

A discussion around a core document captures key elements, gives 'voice' to community concerns, and with time, morphs into alignment on the fundamental issues.  Core documents and source texts serve as 'living documents' to raise the level of  conversation and leverage the 'intelligence' of the group. They contain the:

• Fundamental  values
• Strategic statements
• Organizational design principles

that guide attention, energy and activities of the group, promote shared understanding and increase engagement.

Comments

[LH]

Liked the Wellness Wiki, Denham, will crosspost.
And yes -it will be interesting to see, as more and more health oriented Wikis see the light of day, how this will lead to deeper engagement and collaboration in this area.