In his annual 10 Best-Designed Intranets list, Jakob Nielsen makes two very concerning statements. First, he argues for an “editorial approach” on intranets, which is to say that there should be increased control over what’s published. Second, his response to the growth of the wiki in organizations is, “Is there anything more hyped than wikis?” After making this statement, he gives an example of how the National Geographic society is actually using a wiki very effectively for things like cataloging the society’s numerous acronyms and explaining their meaning. I’d try to find some witty response to this, but Jerry Bowles already summed it up perfectly by saying, “Nothing like squashing your own argument.”

On this topic, I do think Jakob is just plain wrong. Wiki is not a fad, and is making real, measurable changes for the better in all kinds of organizations. One way I know it's having a positive impact is the fact that a group of people from all over the academic world were willing to document its impact in my book. I can’t help but wonder if Nielsen is reacting this way because he’s stressed by change. In a recent fireside chat (Part 1, 2) with Jason Fried and Matt Linderman of 37signals, Seth Godin said, “A zoomer is someone who changes without stress. Human beings evolved to resist big changes. So, change triggers stress. But we built a world that keeps changing faster and faster. SO, how to win? Easy, teach yourself to view changes as little things, not big ones.” In totality, the wiki is the biggest change possible - a paradigm shift - but the shift happens most successfully in stages of smaller change that are easy to zoom with.

(via Enterprise Web 2.0)