Wiki and Forums : Revolutionizing Internet
There was a time when companies had to hire staff to support their customers online, some still do. There were technical writers who used to study a product and write about it, some still do. Supporting and technical writing were / are professional jobs and only those people had their words all over a product’s documentation and support history. Things change too fast. Many people who drew salaries supporting customers have lost their jobs and technical writers are in search of a more professional job.
Wikis have replaced the whole process of documentation. One person writing about a product in a certain period of time has changed to “anybody can add” and the time is not of a great essence. The best part for companies is that they don’t have to pay for documenting about the products and the product is reviewed from different angles and tested over a long period of time. If a person sees a mistake in documentation, he could very well change it himself. So, the chances are, the material written has many sources and many proof readings. I would take this over paying somebody to write about a product in a few weeks and pay him.
Forums have sprung up like tulips in the spring time. Every website that makes a script or a piece of software has a forum. There are websites that are registered to serve as forums. In older days, if you had a question, you would send an email to the company requesting help and the paid worker would get to it when he has addressed the previous customers. Forums have truly revolutionized this. The question is posted publicly and any Tom, Dick and Harry who knows about the product can answer the question. The chances of this happening is very high. There are geeks out there who love to spend time at the forums helping others sharing their knowledge. The support staff might have lost their jobs in the process but at the same time, the customers are happier with a faster support process over the internet. This is what I call a revolution.
Wiki was designed in 1995 by Ward Cunningham at an unlikely place for software development, Hawaii(at least that is where he got the idea from). Cunningham coined the term wiki after the “wiki wiki” or “quick” shuttle buses at Honolulu Airport. Wikipedia, internet’s free encyclopedia was formed in January 2001 and now is clearly one of the most popular websites on the web today. There are many other variations of Wiki like Mediawiki, Kwiki, Twiki that are variations of the software and are just as popular.
Incidentally forums got started around the same time as the Wiki. They have made such a big impact on internet communication. The most important part about a forum is the independence each member in the forum has to share the thoughts or questions they have. Talking about thoughts, forums that started mainly as a support media for products is being used by different communities to share ideas and the things they come across. My complaint (in a good way) is that there are too many forums to keep track of. Some of the forum softwares that are available as open source are PHPBB, PunBB, SMF etc. These are the most commonly used internet forum softwares.
These two softwares might have been around for over ten years but still they impact us in our daily lives. Maybe I am ten years late writing this article but these ideas seem fresh to me always. It never ceases to amaze me the way the talent has been utilized through these softwares. I am positive that we are going to see many other softwares that will revolutionize our internet and nothing should be taken as a surprise. What is your best guess on the things that are revolutionizing the internet?
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Filed Under: Archive Categories • Internet
