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7 Components: the Function Pages - Developers

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17 Preliminary<br />

Thoughts<br />

How can wikis contribute to <strong>the</strong> improved organization of groups?<br />

Let's assume that we want to organize a project. What benefits<br />

would we garner from a wiki? How would we have to work with it?<br />

We want to demonstrate that wikis, in comparison to o<strong>the</strong>r systems<br />

(e.g. CMS), offer a number of advantages as an integrative organizational<br />

and communicative medium. They are just as appealing for<br />

companies as <strong>the</strong>y are for political, social and cultural organizations.<br />

The following chapter may seem sacrilegious to some Wikians.<br />

In <strong>the</strong> principles of project management and <strong>the</strong> wiki philosophy,<br />

two opposing concepts meet: a predefined goal, clear definition of<br />

work steps, resources and participants on <strong>the</strong> one hand, and on <strong>the</strong><br />

o<strong>the</strong>r, self-determined goal definition, self responsibility for work<br />

methods and steps and an open number of participants. Yet, when<br />

we take a closer look, <strong>the</strong>re are several similarities. Even Wikipedia<br />

is unthinkable without projects. It may be worthwhile to make use of<br />

experiences from <strong>the</strong> realm of classic project management for wikis<br />

and <strong>the</strong> wiki philosophy.<br />

17.1<br />

What is a Project?<br />

The literature on project management attempts to define a project<br />

using three characteristics: 1<br />

1. It is a one-time event with a predefined result.<br />

2. There is a predefined scheduled start and a predetermined end<br />

to <strong>the</strong> project.<br />

1 See e.g. Portny 2001, 26.<br />

Readers<br />

Authors<br />

WikiAdmins<br />

WebAdmins<br />

17.1 What is a Project?<br />

Project<br />

management<br />

�<br />

�<br />

�<br />

255

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