Exploring the Enterprise Value of Wikis through Media Choice Theories

2. Wikis In The Enterprise

Wiki technology and the principles of wiki-based collaboration have gained popularity through online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia (Wagner, 2006). However, in its original conceptualization wiki technology was not developed for the purpose of a public internet-based encyclopedia but as an internal collaboration platform. Ward Cunningham originally developed the c2 wiki, also known as “Ward’s Wiki” (Wiki, 2009) to support the effort of his project team to maintain version control in a software development project. The underlying principle was to create “the simplest database that might just work” (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001 p. 15). The c2 wiki quickly developed into an open knowledge sharing and collaboration environment. The use of wiki as an encyclopedia (Wikipedia, 2009) arose only several years later in 2000, when Nupedia creators Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales were looking for a collaboration technology to overcome their stalling initiative to create a free, online encyclopedia (Timothy, 2005). As of 2009, Wikipedia is the world’s largest encyclopedia, with over 2.9 Million entries in the English version alone. Wikipedia is also the 8^th most popular Internet site, according to Alexa.com.