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Wikis are great tools for managing and recycling available information on intranets, I personally use them and enjoy their ease of use. But there are major problems for people or companies wanting to put them to serious use out of the box.

Before I go further, I really like this one:

You can go to any major IT department or division in any large company, and there will be a wiki, where people are communicating about projects and writing documentation. So, just like blogs, it started a nice cultural revolution that’s been going on about how to use this really dead-simple tool and its rise in popularity.

However wishful, sadly it is not true. Though, I would personally love to see that day, really! So, why are they not so? Here’s my why:

Software not service: If you are a service provider, you’ll only get your small fish. The big fish isn’t interested. Security, information leak and the general paranoia that their data is in your hands, never mind that their servers are much more vulnerable to crack than your own. Such is the state of the corporate mind. And no, don’t bother to try and convince them otherwise, for they will never believe you. Banks are an exception when they say your money is safe with us =).

Companies always prefer to run on their own servers managed by their own IT departments. So, focus there. Provide a software that can hold its own. And charge for what your software is worth and not by how big the company you’re selling it to. May be I’m an economist’s thud, but I fail to understand the otherwise. For your benefit, you could add a value added annual maintanence service for which, you could charge annual suppport fee. That works exceptionally good in corporations. In fact, they’ll grab it, because it loosens the noose around the floored IT departments.

Folder access problem: This is a problem I have faced personally in trying to run a full fledged department wiki and is a major drag, whether you’re using Instiki or MediaWiki.

If a Wiki can’t have a folder level view/access, then it only becomes a white board. You can’t expect people to re-write the mass of info saved in pdf files in wikis. Who in the hell will do the typing? That’s insane!

And for god’s sake, please don’t bundle your own webserver with a stupid port address tied to it (Instiki, this one’s for you). Most firewalls in corporate environ blindly block port addresses (again the IT paranoia).

Backup: I don’t understand why most undervalue or ignore this major one. I’m not talking about SQL dump. Any root level admin could do that. I’m talking about providing users/people (with relative management rights) with an ability to backup the stuff that they have put-together painstakingly. This is a fair request. If they’re unsure of restoring the info in case of any eventualities, then they’ll be wary of spending their manhours on this what should be a one-time effort.

So, If you want to get the wikis to the mainstream and corporate users, fix these problems first. All talk on Web 2.0 is blissful ignorance to the average corporate joe. No really! because he has more things to worry about than type out a feature request to you guys.

For the record, the company I work for is among the top ten global contractors on ENR and no, we don’t use wikis. And, now you know why.