wikiSquared

Does the California Auto Club have WikiCities in its future?

It seems to me that among the 3+ million members of the California State Automobile Association (CSAA), there've got to be a  LOT  of people with travel insights. 

In my previous blog entry, I asked if anyone wanted to join me with a pilot project.  WikiCities offered a site on their server. 

Now, if I had any professional pride in the kind of site that I could whip together in a handful of hours, I'd NEVER give the following pointer.  Well...  as my erstwhile friends at the design firm IDEO are fond of saying, "fail frequently to succeed often." 

I've created a very (very) rough outline of what an Auto Club wiki might offer. 

It needs work.  It needs better design.  And perhaps most importantly, it needs YOUR contribution.

Check out the UNOFFICIAL CSAA site and imagine you're a club member with something to contribute to the 50-states worth of travel hints. 

add something -- anything...!

And with a more fully 'populated' place, I suspect we'll all be able to get some attention from the CSAA.

who wants to do this pilot project with me?

What if some of the ideas of wikiTravel and wikiHow were tapped by - say - a Great Big Membership association.

Since I've just renewed my AAA membership (The California State Automobile Association - 'CSAA' -  to be more precise), let me spin a story about that organization.

If you take a look at the CSAA site -- you see a place that gives its members an immense amount of useful information.  But the information flow is one way...  I think you could make an easy argument that what's missing is a way to more fully engage the membership by different _kinds_ of offerings. 

The argument could be:  CSAA may have a loyal readership -- what it doesn't have is a committed community.

Enter WikiTravel and WikiHow...

Both offer ideas that the Auto Club could learn from.  Using pretty much the same text as in the previous postings:  "Think about all reasons AAA members travel and about how members enjoy experiences in their travels that go beyond the hotel guides and the concierge's suggestions.  Then think about how many of us take great pride in little 'gems' that have come from our wanderings - be they delightful finds or hard-won lessons... etc "

And the sales hook?

And finally, "think about a way the CSAA could help these travelers share their discoveries in exchange for similar 'insider tips' from other travelers."

If done right - a CSAA memberWiki would be a broad-based venue for the exchange of ideas. As a community of over 3 million individuals, a CSAA 'forum' could be a place where practical expertise, in every informational category on the current CSAA online site, could be offered. 

Technologically easy...

Procedurally pretty easy...

Could be a nice little pilot project.

A Montrealer and a San Franciscan walk into a bar...

..and their discussion wends its way to a couple of premises:

Lots of people travel -- for lots of reasons.  Lots of people enjoy experiences in their travels that go beyond the hotel guides and the concierge's suggestions.  Lots of people take great pride in little 'gems' that've come from their wanderings - be they delightful finds or hard-won lessons.   

And the bet that these two make?

That lots of people would be willing to share their discoveries in exchange for similar 'insider tips' from other travellers.

And so began a Montreal-based wiki-centric company called WikiTravel. 

With no advertising and precious little blog-ish commentary, wikitravel has quickly accumulated the combined smarts of thousands of travellers who've written, edited and appended over six thousand travel 'discoveries.'

What WikiTravel IS:
http://wikitravel.org

And - intriguingly - a page about what it is NOT:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Wikitravel:Goals_and_non-goals

operations manuals as mediaevel flagellation

In days gone by, I was employed -- more than once -- as a procedures writer.  In one instance it had do to with recording, ordering and (re)presenting Things People Did in a major computer center.  In another, with the details of certain nursing and medical procedures. 

It's a profoundly thankless task.  You spend a lot of time learning what people claim they already know, and you inevitably get in their way as they're involved in doing Whatever It Is You're Supposed to Write About. And just as inevitably, you know no-one will read what you've written because (1) if you're good, it's already what they do and (2) and if you're not so good (more likely), you've gotten it wrong -- so why bother...

Such was the dilemma.

And for those of us involved in this ongoing textual self-flagellation, there never seemed any good way around this problem. 

Wikis may be a clever answer here.

There's an interesting new company (/service) Out There called WikiHow.

Basically, it's a place where anyone can contribute to the development of a set of 'how to's'.  WikiHow is an open community, Creative Commons kind of place.  People can write guides on anything from, oh, how to write one's own 'elevator pitch.' to how to find and evaluate a personal Life Coach. 

Less than 9 months old and with almost no effort spent on advertising, there are thousands of self-written and group-edited guides on WikiHow.

Ross Mayfield, founder and CEO of SocialText has commented on WikiHow in Corante. (.. http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2005/07/04/wikihow_to_open_content.php )

My interest is in how a WikiHow environment can be used in business settings to make sure that in-house guides are accurate, timely, and -- worth referring to. 

My hunch is that wikiHow is worth watching...