Wiki Difficulties

The thing that really caught my eye in this weeks readings were the concepts of community support and community building that are part of the creation of a wiki. The idea that a wiki needs a dedicated community seems in some ways counter to the idea that a wiki can build a community. Which came first, the community or the wiki? I suppose, ultimately, it all comes down to need. Is there a need that can be filled by a wiki? If there is, then there theoretically ought to be a community waiting to embrace it. That community need not be cohesive and recognized prior to the implementation of the wiki, and thus it can develop via the wiki.

The fact that there must be a need for the wiki in the first place is vitally important. I have had the opportunity to develop a course wiki for an engineering course at Queen's University and I am sad to say that it bombed. It was a well-crafted wiki and a lot of work went into it, but in the end, it turned out that there was no need for it. The idea was that the class could use it as a virtual discussion space and as a space to write the draft of their final papers, which were to be done in groups of three or four students. Ultimately, the wiki failed because the students did not find it difficult to meet in person to discuss their projects, and thus there was no need for a virtual discussion space.

There was some activity on the wiki initially, and that was exciting, but as the term got busier, the students made it known that the wiki was just another thing that they had to keep in mind. It was more of a burden for them to use it than it was a convenience. So, in the end, there was no community support, because although there was a perceived need, there was no actual need. The lesson that I learned from this is that if you can consult a community before implementing such a project, do it.