Businesses are now using web tools and services to help reach their customers and satisfy their internal communication needs. Many smaller businesses are using social networks and wikis so that their employees may communicate and share ideas more easily. Private wikis have proven useful for businesses because of their ease in content management. The wikis also allow for users to add, move and change content while tracking those changes for the wiki creator. This not only allows content to be easily modified but it also allows the creator of the site to easily change it back if need be. Another benefit of the wiki for business use is its costs. I’m sure there is a website that will take a payment for starting a wiki, however sites like wetpaint.com allow their services to be used free of charge.
The wikis also support the sharing of documents of all types including word documents, spreadsheets and even PDF files. The users within the wiki are also able to communicate privately with one another and send e-mails from within the site. I use a wiki for one of my classes and it has made accessing my class resources easier than any other class I have. I do not have to remember a long web address to the class site, search through my binder for handouts or attempt to open files through seaport. Instead, I simply visit wetpaint.com, enter my username and password and go straight to my class site which has any information or document I may be looking for. I believe the ability to access this information from any computer is beneficial to students as well as business employees. If I had a semester-long group project or ran a business that required employee collaboration I would use a wiki for quicker and more effective results.
