Wiki: fficiency

The use of wikis are beneficially in many areas, big and small, when working on any project or just as a public storage of information. That aspect does not change, wikis provide a centralized location to store and display related information in a potentially organized way.

Not using a wiki means communication must be made elsewhere, email, Facebook, etc. Things that are used for more than said project alone. That means distractions as well as inbox clutter. These are things that a wiki can help remove in the sense that in the wiki the focus will be solely on the project. Downtime in looking for information is reduced as team members should be on the same page as to where things are stored; for example, names to files or names to other information under a label will be universal. No one person will have something different.

Interestingly enough, in this article, a summary of other benefits can be found. But, an interesting quote can be found there as well, saying that the wiki is like fifth member of a 4 person group. An extra member means a distribution of less work.

Essentially, it's a tool about saving time with a bonus of being free to use. So why not use it?