SWOT analysis is a tool for strategic evaluation and planning. It’s often used for businesses, but is a helpful method for evaluation. For a given project, activity or plan, you look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, to help frame an evaluation.
Hopefully this will help people determine WhenToUseWiki.
Strengths:
- Diffs, or roll-back tools allow for people to see a history and transformation.
- Collaboration is made easy because all participants share the same text.
- Basic editing is trivially easy (paragraphs, lists, simple links).
- Knowledge is integrated in documents, rather than spread out in messages.
- Many hands make light work.
- Flexible web site architectures that evolve with time.
Weaknesses:
- Many subtle variations in configuration have potentially strong effects on group interaction, knowing which is appropriate and when is (as yet) difficult. Example: Should old pages revisions expire or stay around for ever?
- Knowledge of the WikiEngine peculiarities has little long-term value, as syntax varies and features vary.
- Wiki installations that depend on wiki mark-up rather than WYSIWYG may inhibit formatting for novice users (thereby decreasing usability). This may limit which software is appropriate for novice users.
- General public is disbelieving and distrustful of SoftSecurity.
- Very demanding in terms of processes, discussion, and community.
- ContentOverForm makes a bad first impression and loses spectacle-hungry readers.
- Visualization are still lacking. It is both difficult to get an overview of pages in their context (nagivation, grouping) and of development over time (authorship, activity). RecentChanges is the only exception, at the moment.
- When pages get too long, they become uneditable in certain browsers, or for those with less user RAM in their machines.
Opportunities:
- Building as you go allows for learning through experience for the participants.
- WikiAsYouLearn – documenting while learning allows for reflection and discussion amongst learners
- ArtifactBasedLearning? – the wiki turns into an artifact that guides the learning process because learners must build their own site structure, and therefore structure the learning material as well
- The strong reliance on SoftSecurity such as PeerReview and ReversibleChanges promote the learning of social skills, especially when faced with conflicts and pranks.
- Make the WorldWideWeb a two-way communications medium, an InterWiki’d network of wikis, “owned” and maintained by billions.
- Get everything on that Web: dictionary definitions, car manuals, dying languages, ancient history. A KnowledgeManagement? system for the human race!
Threats:
- New users (new to internet) may feel lost in the context of an established wiki.
- SoftSecurity measures require a fair amount of security on behalf of the person responsible. Traditional face-to-face social skills might not be easily transferred to the wiki medium.
- Since the site structure must be built as well, wikis can be “confusing – with endless links among pages, but not sufficient cues as to a larger conceptual or navigational structure.” – Critical Methods
- Early wikis created the impression that WikisAreUgly
- Perception that wikis limit contribution to a few members – see Evan Williams doesn't like Wikis 27 Apr 03
- FearOfEditing – inhibitions of non-users or new-users.
- Since only edits register on RecentChanges, the opinion of the SilentMajority remains unknown, so decision-making needs at least another channel.
See:
- About SWOT
- More critical views of wikis
CategoryWhyWiki CategoryIntroductionToWiki
wiki swot strength weakness opportunity threat skills learning