At the Web2.0 Expo that took place in San Francisco last week, I was amazed by the stories from customers about how Web2.0 technologies, like wikis, are propagating inside of corporations and re-shaping how business gets done. There was some lively discussion with technology visionaries discussing why CIOs are starting to implement these technologies inside the enterprise, as well as interesting media coverage from the show. It also happens that Socialtext had the good fortune of being the Web2.0 Expo wiki.
From what I saw working the Socialtext booth for three days – wikis are everywhere and spreading like crazy – with applications ranging from technical documentation being crafted by teams of writers spread around the globe using wikis, to community sites being built out and wikis seen as a powerful social networking tool to lubricate these sites and their users’ interactions, to dynamic sales and marketing intranets growing within a wiki framework for real-time knowledge-sharing, or project teams collaborating on a range of development and product strategy initiatives with wikis at the core.
There was some feedback I heard repeatedly, like one point about the average wiki user no longer being a technical or developer audience, someone familiar with CamelCase for example. Now wiki use is expanding across the enterprise and IT staff are increasingly under the gun to deliver a truly, easy-to-use wiki solution for broad use. Yes, this means a wiki that is easy enough for your mother to feel comfortable using. Or the other point of feedback about the increasing pressure for wikis to integrate with core IT. No longer are wikis a distinct and separate ‘playground’ application, but instead one that needs to plug into enterprise directory systems, backup procedures, single sign-on portals, compliance procedures, security infrastructure, etc. Furthermore, customers are looking to consolidate their wiki platforms from multiple solutions and deployments within a large enterprise to a single, unified platform.
Open-source wikis, like Twiki and Mediawiki, were frequently mentioned as widely deployed today by small groups within enterprises (usually engineering or operations). And increasingly, customers were stopping by the Socialtext booth discussing how they are trying Socialtext Open, our open-source
option, and our newly released Socialtext Virtual, a VMware image of Socialtext Open designed for faster deployment.
The feedback from users was consistently whether with open-source options or commercial-grade packaged solutions that addressing the increasing end-user requirements around ease-of-use and IT requirements for enterprise integration are critical. And the internal demands within enterprises to consolidate the multiple wikis deployed today into a consolidated wiki environment leveragable across the entire enterprise environment is also crucial. Enterprise decision makers clearly want more and they want it now, and they want it with wikis! In some cases, they want open-source but they require a vendor-supported solution with commercial support offerings. I had the good fortune of talking to a number of customers going through this shift today using Socialtext Open and taking advantage of all the great flexibility of open-source community efforts, while at the same time using Socialtext Support services.
In many ways, the wiki market feels like it is going through a transition process – from early, technical adopters to mainstream and widespread enterprise use – where ease-of-use reigns and wikis truly become everywhere. What’s most exciting for me personally is seeing wikis as one of the applications leading this shift from Web2.0 coolness to Enterprise2.0 maturity, and the next year should be fun to observe as this evolution continues. I think we are indeed closer than one might think for the day when there is one wiki server for every email server.
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