25 Ways to Use Wikis in Your Intranet

By lexi — 10 comments

The wiki is one of the most useful applications in an intranet. It’s certainly one of the most popular applications among Noodle users. And why not? It’s easy, it’s fast, it’s accessible anywhere. Wikis can be edited on the fly, and the more users are given access to create and edit them, the more collaboration can occur.

Organizations are using intranet wikis to document and share knowledge, promote collaboration, and even enhance learning. Below are 25 specific ways you can use wikis in your intranet:

1. Project Management

Create a wiki for a project or special event, and put everything in it: timeline, tasks, notes, progress reports, lists of vendors, images, videos, and everything else that will be needed for it. Those who are involved in the project need to go to just one place on the intranet to find whatever is relevant to that project.

2. Collaborative Documents

Working on an article or report together? Create a wiki where the different authors can directly input their contributions. This eliminates the email ping-pong of drafts that people eventually lose track of anyway.

3. Brainstorming

Need ideas to cut down on the use of paper in the office? Create a wiki where everyone can post their suggestions. Make it judgement-free, so everyone will feel safe to contribute.

4. FAQs

Capture frequently-asked-questions in a wiki. Employees can add, develop, and expand on the answers.

5. Glossary

If you use many acronyms and technical terms at work, a glossary wiki is a good way to put all definitions in a centralized place. Employees can contribute their own definitions. You never know which version will resonate best with each employee.

6. Client Notes

Keep an active file on each client, complete with notes, media resources, and links to files and external sites.

7. Client Collaboration

If you use your intranet as an extranet, allowing people outside your organization access to some parts of the intranet, you can use wikis to collaborate with clients. Post drafts and ideas on the wiki, and allow clients to add their comments and suggestions.

8. Debates

Stimulate discussion on a work-related issue by creating a wiki where employees from either side can argue their points.

9. Conference Journal

Document the goings-on in a conference, so those who aren’t able to attend can learn from it as well. Post session summaries, videos, and photos.

10. Dynamic Documents

A wiki is the perfect publishing platform for company documents that are changing all the time. This could include operations manuals, guidelines, and policies.

11. Best Practices

Let intranet users compile best practices in a wiki.

12. Checklists and Other References

Use a wiki for reference materials that are needed frequently, such as checklists, instructions, templates, codes, and scripts. Think of it as your enterprise playbook.

13. Goals Tracking

Keep staff motivated on corporate goals by publishing them on a wiki. Include sub-goals, action steps, deadlines, milestones, and progress tracking.

14. Contacts

A wiki can be an easy way to compile contacts, especially when they’re few and are constantly changing.

15. Research

Preparing for a presentation? Need to draft a report? Capture notes, ideas, links, photos, and everything else in a wiki. Ask co-workers to contribute to your draft easily by posting resources you may not have known about.

16. Personal Work Space

Who says you have to share a wiki? You can keep it all to yourself, if that’s what you want. Use it as a virtual desktop, capturing whatever you may need in your job.

17. Presentations

If you suspect your colleagues are suffering from death by Powerpoint, try creating a presentation in the form of a wiki instead of slides. Embed different types of media to keep it interesting, and encourage your audience to add their questions and thoughts straight into the wiki.

18. Virtual Field Trip

Let intranet users take a virtual trip to your remote locations, client offices, retail stores, or other interesting places, by building a wiki around each one.

19. Problem Solving

Collaborate on a problem, discuss and debate options, and brainstorm solutions in a problem-solving wiki.

20. Employee or Department Portfolio

Show off staff member’s or departments’ best work.

21. Staff Association Events

Document staff association events, office parties, and other events to help employees relive happy moments.

22. Staff Hall of Fame

Showcase employee achievements in a hall of fame wiki.

23. Reviews

Let intranet users share their opinions and experiences with vendors, software, gadgets and other resources you use at work.

24. Employee Newsletter

Make employee newsletters dynamic and collaborative by publishing them in the form of a wiki.

25. Training

Use a wiki to organize and present a self-directed training course

How do you use wikis in your organization? Are you currently using wikis in a way that isn’t included in this list? Let us know by posting a comment below.

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Noodle is the social intranet software that improves communication, enhances collaboration, and encourages innovation in the enterprise. It brings microblogging, wikis, document sharing, instant messaging and other social business tools in a single portal. Click here to see what’s possible with Noodle.