The Butt Ugly Weblog

Wiki stuff for a change

Stephen Johnston is in Business Week, talking about wikis in Nokia. Woo-hoo!

Yup, they're awesome tools. I simply could not do my daily work without them anymore. They cuts down on your email overload (mostly because it becomes easier to choose what you want to ignore), and they're far more up to date than anything else. It's almost like having everyone from a project team in a single room with a giant noticeboard in the middle.

This sharing thing, so integral to Web 2.0, is really catching on. On the internet, you would think it's a lot about pushing your own ego to the front, but really, in this mass of voices individuality is lost. Sharing means "not keeping things to yourself". Sharing means making yourself less important, and helping the community keep going even without you. A wiki can be edited by anyone, so nobody really "owns" the content anymore.

I am actually glad about this, since it is showing that people might be becoming less self-centric. Realizing that aiming for common good is a better survival strategy is probably an important milestone in any civilization. It seems that there's a chunk of population more willing to give of themselves and share the experiences. Maybe that is also at the core of the "copyright reform movement" and why it is happening now.

(I'm also mighty tired, so excuse me if this is a bit disassociated and incoherent.)