“Wikis develop to suit the needs of their users,” Andrews says. “Unlike a blog, where I’d just be pushing my content, our wiki pulls out the best information from a wide pool of smart enterprise users. It’s become a selling point for my firm and a benefit to all my customers.”

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Collaboration or chaos?

The free-form nature of wikis -- and to a lesser extent blogs -- can be a benefit, but this lack of control over content causes some companies to wonder whether these tools might prove detrimental to business. Many struggle with the issue of how much autonomy to allow employees when they blog.

Sun Microsystems’ employee bloggers must agree to a strict company policy before they set up their corporate blogs. But there is no further vetting process for content; whatever employees write is posted without review.

Still, public-relations professionals worry that too-candid blogs may result in branding meltdowns. This fear results in some odd restrictions. For example, Microsoft bloggers generally refuse to respond directly to press requests asking for comment on their own blog posts, instead passing such requests along to Microsoft’s PR agency, Waggener Edstrom.

The smart business blogger accepts the fact that anything put in writing and transmitted over the Internet is about as private as a postcard. Recently, posts from Intel President Paul Otellini’s blog were made public. Otellini’s very open comments, intended to be viewed only by Intel employees, presented a candid view of the challenges Intel faces, including praise for competitor AMD.

But Otellini couldn’t have been surprised to see the contents of his blog leaked. As he wrote in his first post: “While this is intended as an internal blog, I recognize that it will become public -- welcome to the Internet! As a result, please recognize that I may be a bit limited in my comments and responses, to protect Intel.’’

Williams and other wiki users say that stressing user accountability and regular review of postings is critical when wikis are used to share important information, such as security data.

“We tell people to clearly state whether their post is an established fact or whether they are at the figuring-out stage,” Williams says. “A senior member of my team looks through and prunes or edits postings twice a day -- more often when we’re dealing with an active issue. You can’t just wander away from a business wiki; even with the most wonderful collaborative efforts, someone still has to be in charge.”

Bluebill’s Gilbane believes that enterprise wikis will soon become more like blogs, with permission-based features that allow greater control over posted content.

“The more useful a wiki is to the enterprise, the more you need some sort of control over who can edit and add content,” Gilbane says. “You need to define the fine line between collaboration and a complete free-for-all or it can become a real mess. That said, we’ve had a difficult time finding a skeptic to include in our upcoming panel on enterprise use of wikis and blogs -- everyone we speak to is very enthusiastic about the benefits of this technology.”