If you’ve visited the community site recently, I’m sure you noticed the news about our new community site. Did you also notice the mention of a Wiki? You may ask yourself the question, what is a Wiki? Or even better, what does this mean to me?
Let’s start with an overall definition. The word Wiki comes to us from exotic Hawaii. It means “fast”. A Wiki is a collection of web articles that can be added by a user and then edited by that user or other users.One Wiki you may be familiar with is Wikipedia.
A Wiki becomes a rich resource, with real-time guidelines and solutions. It is constantly reviewed and updated, so the information never gets stale. In the QuickBooks world, it can provide that document that explains conclusively how to move a file from a Windows environment to a Mac environment. It can include the exact steps as well as the list of things that will and will not transfer. Let us say that I author an article on this very subject, but leave out some critical pieces. Another user can come along and add them into the document. In addition to the all important word, these articles can include images and even video content. Maybe someone will create QuickBooks rap video!
But, you ask, don’t I need to know HTML to create web pages? The answer is, you don’t. All you need is the HTML editing tool that is in the Wiki. With this tool entering and editing articles is very easy. It will look like you are creating a word document. A simple widget allows you to pull in videos, images and even set up your article for RSS feed.
Why do we even need a wiki? It is helpful to have experts who can help you solve program errors and technical issues. However, the best advice on using QuickBooks comes from the people who use it every single day. That means you! Once the new site is launched, stay tuned for more details on the Wiki and how you can participate. As far as accuracy goes, consider this... The average wiki has only around 200 people actively participating in its content management. The QuickBooks communities are powered by 1000’s of users. Unlike a blog (hmmm…) which is the opinion of one, a Wiki article is a collection of the contributions of many.
I leave you with a quote about Wikipdedia from a 2006 Economist article. “Wikipedia's promise is nothing less than the liberation of human knowledge”. That is the objective for this Wiki, liberating the tremendous power of the knowledge of QuickBooks users.
This blogger can’t wait to get started!
Can't wait to see the wiki!
I highly recommend the "Wikis in Plain English" video from Commoncraft. It's a great resource for explaining what wikis...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
Posted by: Brian Sweat | January 06, 2009 at 04:18 PM