The battle for Wikipedia's soul, an article published in a recent issue of The Economist, touches on the semi-political struggles within the Wikipedia "organization" between Inclusionists (those who think everything should be in Wikipedia) and Deletionists (those who feel fewer but more important/noteworthy articles should be included). While the article does an outstanding job of laying out the differences between these two groups of Wikipedia users and the arguments behind each point of view, of greater interest to us is the larger concept of what should be included in a Wiki, specifically an internal Corporate Wiki.
One concern we hear on occasion is if you include too much in your Wiki, you may run the risk of Users getting frustrated with having to wade through too much information to find what they are looking for, or simply being overwhelmed by the shear volume of information available. However, we feel that if you use a Wiki with enhanced features such as content filtering, fine-grained searching and tagging, along with organizing your information appropriately and consistently, these concerns will be greatly minimized. While you certainly do not want to include everything under the sun, such as outdated company forms or personal musings (use a personal blog for those), the "less is more" route should definitely be avoided.
When an organization severely restricts what goes into their Enterprise Wiki, they are in effect limiting its ability to grow naturally. If there are doubts about what should go into your Wiki, then you risk losing the benefits of contributions by the more cautious people in your organization. In contrast, if you do everything you can to encourage people to contribute anything they believe to be relevant, you will be amazed how much valuable information, enhanced collaboration, and great ideas will come out of using a Wiki. By embracing a diverse but logically organized body of knowledge from the beginning, you will always help spur adoption and increase activity- which is the true measure of success for your Wiki.
