I think wikis are an awesome solution to many organisational communication problems, as well as a simple way to have your own website. Here I'm collecting together some of my thoughts about this.
WikiAsWebsite - I think wikis can work quite well as simple, easy-to-maintain websites. Once it's designed, adding content becomes a snap and you don't need to worry about HTML, FTP, CSS and all that. It's almost a zero-knowledge solution for the user; you don't want to have to become a web expert just to have your own site.
Information Week story on wikis for business, linked from Murugan's blog.
There are other wiki platforms out there, and one proprietary solution is from Socialtext Enterprise Social Software
- Success stories of large organisations using wikis:
http://www.socialtext.com/customers/ (at least 3 major organisations)
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Main/TWikiSuccessStories (at least 8)
MoinMoinSuccessStories (smaller companies)
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki is used in wikipedia - but anywhere else?
Always listen to Ward. Ward Cunningham wrote the first wiki back in 1995, and it's always worth listening to what Ward has to say.
Ingenta's use of wikis which includes useful resources. Quote: {{{For example, the entire build and launch of IngentaConnect was specified and documented on the Wiki, where everyone could review the plans, embellish where appropriate, prompt further discussion and so forth – all via a user-friendly interface which did not rely on local hosting but could nonetheless be access-controlled for internal audiences only. We have since begun to use our Wiki for tasks as diverse as co-ordinating RFP responses, maintaining lists of frequently-forgotten facts and providing both internal and external training documents for Ingenta products and services.
"The project unfolded so much more smoothly because of the centralized, structured documentation available to all stakeholders via the Wiki." }}}