Private wikis are a type of internal knowledge base. Formal internal knowledge bases are more structured and focused on information management and operational efficiency. In contrast, private wikis emphasize collaborative content creation and flexible documentation.
Have you or your colleagues ever spent hours and hours trying to find information? If you have, you are not alone: according to research conducted by McKinsey, employees spend 1.8 hours per day on average, or 9.3 hours per week, searching for information. That’s almost 20% of the workweek or a full workday!
Wouldn’t you prefer to spend all that time on something a lot more creative and productive?
A private wiki can reduce the time you spend searching for information, so you can focus your attention and energy on what matters.
This article will cover the different types of wikis, the benefits of private wikis, a framework for building an effective internal wiki, and associated best practices.
Let’s dive in!
A wiki is a database or collection of information built collaboratively. Modern wikis are hosted on computer networks and can be accessed via a corporate intranet or the Internet.
The most famous example of a wiki is Wikipedia: it is a public wiki with almost 7 million articles. The English version of Wikipedia gets 10 billion page views per month. The site gets around 86K new registered users per month, and 38K active editors work on the site each month.
In addition to public wikis like Wikipedia, there are other types of wikis. Let’s learn more about them.
There are three main types of wikis: public, private, and personal.
Public, or external, wikis like Wikipedia, are built and edited by approved users and are accessible to the general public. Public wikis have moderation or oversight mechanisms to manage quality and prevent vandalism.
Additional examples of public wikis are:
Private, or internal, wikis are built and edited by a closed community, such as the employees of a particular company. These wikis are only accessible to the closed community.
Examples of private wikis are:
Individuals use private wikis to organize personal knowledge, documents, notes, files, and projects.
This article will provide in-depth information on private wikis.
Private wikis are a type of internal knowledge base. Formal internal knowledge bases are more structured and focused on information management and operational efficiency. In contrast, private wikis emphasize collaborative content creation and flexible documentation.
On your private wiki, you can create and share documentation related to different aspects of company operations, such as
Employees can contribute and share important information for collective knowledge sharing, and the wiki will provide numerous additional benefits for employees.
Private wikis offer multiple benefits for employees and organizations.
The biggest advantage of internal wikis is faster access to relevant, accurate, and up-to-date information. Instead of finding information, employees can focus on tasks that contribute to organizational productivity, such as finding solutions to pressing problems or developing new features, products, and services.
Organizational knowledge is often the result of years or decades of effort put in by employees, whether in research, creation and launch of products and services, successes, and failures. It is an asset that can be lost when employees leave a company. A private wiki will help to retain this knowledge and the associated expertise and experience.
The wiki will also serve as a means of effective knowledge sharing and transfer. Knowledge privy to individuals or teams, when shared on a private wiki, will serve as a source of collective experience: employees will learn best practices from others and will be saved from repeating mistakes others have made in the past.
New employees require a certain amount of time to learn about the organization they are joining and their role in it. Private wikis can minimize this time: with fast access to information, new employees can learn about processes, procedures, products and services, and other aspects of the company operation they need to be able to start contributing. They can get this information informally via information on the private wiki, or formally via purpose-built training documentation and material shared on it.
Private wikis help to reduce costs in several ways:
The cost reduction, in combination with higher innovation resulting from better knowledge sharing, leads to improved productivity and creativity, and higher profits.
You know the benefits of private wiki, but how do you go about creating a good one? Let's find out.
Follow this simple five-step process to create a powerful wiki for your organization.
Just thinking of creating a private wiki with hundreds or thousands of written articles seems like a nightmare.
But don’t worry: you live in the modern world, and instead of written content, you can create a private wiki with videos. Your corporate YouTube! How about that!
The software that will help you do that is Documentations AI, an innovative platform that will help you create stunning video documentation from screen recordings. And it doesn’t end there: you can also create written documentation from the videos. A host of cool editing features will help you create professional-grade video documentation in no time.
Content creation is much easier once you decide to go the video route.
With traditional written documentation, you need an army of content writers and technical writers to create the content, after which experts review it and suggest changes. This iterative process is time-consuming and expensive.
With Documentations AI, anyone, yes anyone, can create a simple screen recording, upload it to the platform, and voila, the documentation is ready.
The process is so easy that anyone, including subject matter experts (SMEs), managers, project managers, HR professionals, accountants, marketers, and salesmen, can create the documentation and content for your private wiki.
And there is no limit to the type of content you want to create. Video is ideal for just about any content and documentation, including walkthroughs, process documentation, standard operating procedures (SOPs), technical tutorials, project documentation, frequently asked questions (FAQs), troubleshooting guides, best practices, and training/onboarding material.
You don’t want team members working with inaccurate and out-of-date information. At the same time, you don’t want to discard content or documentation created earlier, as it is a record of how information, knowledge, processes, products, and services evolved over time.
The best way to achieve both objectives is via version control, which records changes made to files, allowing users to track what modifications were made, by whom, and when.
With version control in place, users can work with the latest file versions and refer to older versions when required.
The private wiki will contain information needed by all employees, such as HR policies and procedures. It can also contain sensitive and confidential information, such as details of technological innovations you must protect from competitors.
With access rights, you can restrict access to sensitive information while allowing employees to benefit from the information hosted on the private wiki. In addition to managing access, you can configure editing rights to allow only approved personnel to make changes to content and documentation.
Information and technology get obsolete fast: floppy disks were cutting-edge not so long ago, yet today, most people don’t know what they are.
In this fast-paced world, content and documentation will become irrelevant, inaccurate, and out-of-date, unless they are regularly maintained and updated.
Maintenance of written documentation is time-consuming and costly: technical writers need to follow a lengthy iterative process for updates, reviews, and approvals.
Video documentation does not suffer from this disadvantage: if you created a video last week with Documentations AI, to update it you can simply recreate a new screen recording, make necessary edits, and publish the updated documentation today.
Your private wiki must have the following features to serve its intended purpose of helping users find and share information.
A table of contents with clear sections for important topics and links to relevant pages are essential for helping users navigate the wiki and find what they are looking for.
Ease of use is critical for user engagement, otherwise, employees might prefer other methods of finding information, even if they are inefficient.
You don't want employees to sift through mountains of information to get to what they are looking for. That would defeat the whole purpose of the wiki.
Enabling powerful search is a must-have for any private wiki: users must get relevant search results for keywords and key phrases they type in.
Collaboration is the soul of a private wiki, and multi-user collaboration is another must-have feature. Support for commenting and sharing ideas on under-construction pages will foster team spirit and lead to the creation of high-quality and useful content.
The mobile share of organic search traffic in the US grew from 27% in 2013 to 63% in 2021. And it's easy to understand why: mobiles are always within arm’s reach, are easy to use, and work on the go, at home, and in the office.
Therefore, in addition to desktops, the wiki must be accessible and functional on portable devices, such as laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Follow these best practices to build a private wiki your users will love.
A logical structure is critical: it will help users create and find relevant content.
A clear hierarchy will make it easier to navigate through the content and minimize the time needed to find specific documents or pages.
With a structure in place, you can add new information and topics without making the wiki unwieldy.
A structure is also key for collaboration, as team members can contribute effectively only if they understand how and where to add their input.
Employees using the wiki for training can only benefit from logically arranged information.
A wall of never-ending text is the best way to send users to sleep!
So break up the wall of text with images, tables, illustrations, and diagrams. This is necessary for user engagement and will help you get your point across.
Better yet, use Documentations AI to create video content for your private wiki. Video is more engaging and helps with knowledge retention. Creating video is a breeze with Documentations AI. If required, you can also generate written documentation to complement videos.
Provide training and support to make it easier for employees to use and benefit from the wiki’s features and functions.
Employees often resist new tools and workflows. Support and training can help them overcome this resistance, and give them the confidence to adopt the wiki and integrate it into their work routines.
Trained users will make fewer errors, which is important for maintaining the quality of content on the wiki.
Just building a private wiki won’t make employees more collaborative. Tools and technologies can improve communication, but can’t change the fundamentals of a company culture that doesn't encourage collaboration.
You must build a culture that encourages collaboration and rewards it. To build such a culture, you can lead by example, promote open communication, encourage teamwork, and recognize and reward collaboration.
As Peter Drucker said, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
Analytics can provide insight into wiki usage, popular content, and areas for improvement. User feedback is another tool for understanding what works and what needs to change.
With monitoring in place, you measure wiki performance and implement processes for its continuous improvement.
Now that you know the best practices, it's time to select software to build your private wiki.
There are many tools and platforms for building text-based private wikis. These are ideal if you want to bore people to death or send them to sleep. But we’re guessing you don’t want that, right?
This is the age of video, and the best private wiki software is the one that will keep you ahead of the curve.
Documentations AI is your go-to solution for building and managing a powerful private wiki.
Follow a simple four-step process to create video documentation:
Docai supports user-friendly features and robust security. Use it to streamline the creation, organization, and maintenance of internal documentation for your private wiki. Effortlessly collaborate with your team, maintain up-to-date records, and ensure secure access—all with one intuitive platform.
Accurate, timely, and relevant information is crucial for completing important tasks, decision-making, and effective management and leadership.
Finding information can be extremely time-consuming, taking up to 20% of an average employee's work week.
A private wiki, built, maintained, and updated collaboratively by employees, can minimize the time required for finding information and help employees invest their energy and abilities in productive tasks.
Documentations AI is the perfect tool to create a private wiki. You can use it to develop professional-grade video and written content for your wiki.
You can also use it to create technical documentation, project documentation, IT documentation, training manuals, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Sign up today to start building your private wiki and revolutionize the way you work.