The Long Tail of information sharing

The Long Tail of information sharing. Even on Wikipedia, fewer than 2% have contributed over 100 articles. Over 85% have contributed fewer than 5 articles. A Wiki inside an organisation is unlikely to reach critical mass, left to itself.

6 thoughts on “The Long Tail of information sharing”

  1. But I imagine, many in the 85% probably contributed stuff that the prolific guys never thought of. For instance, I know one guy who put up something on Ananth Pai (Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha), and i doubt he probably ever added anything else. But you are right about wiki in an organization. Do you know an organization where a wiki has been used effectively?

  2. No, not offhand. We were planning to recommend it at one of our clients’, but I’m not going to do that any more.

  3. if the organization strength is large – runs into many thousands or lakhs – I think the required critical mass might be acheived.. for smaller companies and small teams too, it might make sense – since, every one is liable to participate – especially product documentation – it would be easier make/correct and change.

  4. A colleague just reported that his current client is successfully using a Wiki. So may it’s not impossible after all…

  5. wiki is all about scale i think. The sergery brin special lecture at UCB is a case in point. You can access this at google videos

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