small business

Cynthia Karena reported on using wikis in biztech section of The Age a couple of weeks back. In preparing her article she interviewed me about wikis, and followed up with some questions via email.

Creative Contingencies uses a wiki to liaise and collaborate with our clients. And we also host wikis for other small to medium businesses. Larger businesses will have a communications structure in place, but a wiki is a cheap  and simple way for smaller businesses to start working collaboratively on documentation tasks. We use Mediawiki - primarily because it's the same software used by Wikipedia, and many people are familiar with it. If they learn mediawiki syntax, they can also use that on other wikis.

Is different too scary for small business?

I was at a meeting yesterday - and I came up with an analogy about how Open Source presents a different model of competition to the market. Open source software, and open standards lets everyone compete on the same terms and lowers the barriers to entry for new players. Literally anyone can take the same tools and innovate in the way they deliver results for their customers.