Wiki event in Fremont

Yesterday I attended a technical event in Fremont organized by SIG web. The event was about wiki, the technology that is behind the popular wikipedia and that is becoming an important collaboration tool for the small to large companies. The invitation came from Peter Thoeny, the founder of Twiki.org, co-founder of StructuredWikis LLC, and also the moderator of the event. I met Peter on August 2006 at an event at Swissnex co-sponsored by BAIA.
Peter is one of the few people that can talk about a topic apparently trivial as the wiki without being trivial. Having Peter as moderator was great, but we miss the opportunity to have him sharing his opinions and vision about the wiki technology. The event combined an impressive group of wiki experts, including Ben Elowitz (Wetpaint), Jon Silvers (Atlassian Software Systems), Jonas M Luster (SocialText) and Scott Johnston (JotSpot). Almost hidden among the public was Jeremiah Owyang blogging the event live.

I’m considering organizing a similar event with BAIA sometime in the next months. Do you think wiki as topic is too vertical to attract non-technical people or the concept of wiki is becoming mainstream and more people would like to know more about it?

Franco Folini

Comments

[William Anderson]

i think it would be a great topic, although i'd expand it a bit to talk about where and how wikis are currently being used. i don't think the term "wiki" is mainstream outside of the coasts, but events like the one you are proposing will help to push it in that direction.

[Franco Folini]

I'm working with Peter to organize a wiki event, hopefully in January. I believe that with one single speaker we can go a little bit deeper in the topic while preserving the educational value of the event. As William Anderson is saying, wiki technology is not yet mainstream, therefore we will need to combine the basic information for the newbie as well as some “meat” for the rest of us.

[Franco Folini]

News of the day: JotSpot, one of the companies at the Wiki event in Fremont has been acquired by Google. Congratulation to the entire JotSpot team and to Scott Johnston!