Professional Documents
Culture Documents
September 9, 2009
Analysts: Andrew M. Davis, Brad Schwarzenbach
The Wiki
Looking at Wikipedia and beyond this Tippingpoint Labs New Media Life Cycle
Analysis considers the future of the crowd-sourced platforms, potential monetiza-
tion strategies, and offers key recommendations for enterprise application and
implementation.
tippingpointlabs.com
1.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Analysts: Andrew M. Davis, Brad Schwarzenbach
Channel Overview
It wasn’t until Wikipedia’s launch that wikis began their slow and Since its introduction,
steady rise to mainstream adoption. MediaWiki has been installed
on websites around the world.
The success of Wikipedia (or any wiki for that matter) is directly tied
to the passion and activity of a small subset of users who actually MediaWiki isn’t the only free
contribute and edit content. Even Wikipedia with only 500,000 wiki software solution. There
contributors demonstrates that in even the most popular wiki in the are literally hundreds of
world, less than .10% of all users actively participate. ■ different wiki platforms
available today.■
tippingpointlabs.com
2.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Resource Analysis
Participating On Wikipedia
If you plan on participating on Wikipedia, you must
learn their process for validating, editing, sourcing
and deleting content. In addition, you must get ac-
quainted with their wiki markup language. This is no
easy task.
tippingpointlabs.com
3.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Forecast Analysis
A wiki theme and plug-ins developed to turn Word- Furthermore, Wikipedia must settle on a sustainable
press into a fu"y functional wiki. revenue model. Without this, its longevity as a
worldwide resource is uncertain. ■
Microsoft’s SharePoint and even the open source
blogging platform, WordPress, have implemented
tippingpointlabs.com
4.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
High
Wikipedia
Usability Concerns
Free Open
(User Engagement)
Source Wiki
Platforms
Hosted Wiki
Solutions
Wiki
functionality
ported to new
Platforms
Low
Low Platform Growth High
(Momentum)
Key Forces
User Engagement & Momentum Focus on Usability
The Four Key Forces sure has created a set of connotations for any wiki pro-
vider that must focus on redefining the platform as
There are four main key forces that act on any new
easy-to-use, in the form of easily-managed informa-
channel as it moves through its phases in the New
tion, agile content organization, and low-barrier tools
Media Life Cycle™. These forces are expressed as Ex-
to allow users to more frequently contribute.
posure, Momentum, User Pressure and Competitive
Threats. Momentum
User Pressure Wikis are stuck in the monetization phase, where
companies like DekiWiki, who offer an open source
In terms of usability, wikis as a category have largely
solution are hoping to capitalize by selling service and
fallen flat. Wikis are constantly thought of as ‘geek-
support agreements for their software. Hosted solu-
centric’ tools, requiring ‘coding knowledge’ and an un-
tions, like Zoho’s wiki are charging users for access to
derstanding of backend functionality. For Wikipedia
the tools. Wikipedia, is working to drive donations to
and wikis in general to see growth and wider adoption,
support its growth. Until corporations see the value in
new users will need to see usable features and func-
using a wiki, momentum for deploying wiki solutions
tions emerge that allow for higher participation rates.
will remain slow.
Exposure
Competitive Threats
Wikipedia, almost single-handedly helped drive the
There is a lot of competition in the wiki market.
notion that user-generated content can be valuable,
Without a clear monetization model and corporate use
credible and crowd-sourced effectively. In addition, the
case, competitors will continually emerge, offering
exposure Wikipedia garnered in the early phases of its
slight variations on the basic notion of a wiki
evolution helped define the wiki platform. This expo-
platform.■
tippingpointlabs.com
5.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
This Wikipedia editing interface is indicative of how inaccessible wiki functionality is to a new user.
Content Potential
Wiki Content Organization & Creation Tools Stifle
Deployment & Management
The creation of frequent, high-quality, relevant con-
tent on any wiki is crucial to its long term growth
and sustainability.
The 1% Rule
Remember, no matter how successful a wiki is, only
1% of the entire audience for your content will par-
ticipate in the generation or validation of the con-
tent you create. This means that the user experience
must be accessible and easy.
Too Many Pages No Structure
Creating aesthetically pleasing, well-formatted,
organized content is also part of a user’s experience
in generating or consuming content on a wiki.
Wikipedia, with its intense focus on using search as
the starting point for navigation is the most success- Even DekiWiki, one of the more user-#iendly wiki so-
ful wiki organization model. Other platforms at- lutions on the market is difficult to navigate and organ-
tempt to provide users with a navigation menu that ize content.
can result in hundreds of disorganized pages, unless
well-managed by content editors. ■
tippingpointlabs.com
6.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
75
Gestate
Experiment
50
Monetize
Adopt
Escalate
25
0
28- -04
20 r-04
12- -04
6-N -05
29- -05
2-N -08
25- -08
5-D -04
27- -04
Ma 5
14- y-05
23- -06
16- -06
8-O 06
31- -06
25- -06
17- -07
9-S -07
2-D -07
24- -07
Ma 8
10- y-08
19- -09
12- -09
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Sep
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18-
The life cycle analysis above showcases the slow adoption of the wiki as a platform. While Wikipedia helped users
around the world understand the value of crowd sourcing the creation of content, the deployment of wiki solutions
has slowly progressed through a prolonged escalation phase.
Medium Overview
While corporations have been slow to adopt wikis as Channels like Zoho have released wiki functionality
a collaborative way to capture and organize informa- as part of a large suite of ‘enterprise-ready’ tools and
tion, the proliferation of new wiki platforms has are asking users to pay a monthly fee for access.
grown exponentially. (See WikiMatrix.org for an ex- Other open source platforms like DekiWiki are sell-
haustive list and comparison tool.) ing support and enterprise-level services attached to
their open source platform.■
tippingpointlabs.com
7.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Gestate
Experiment
75
Monetize
Adopt
Escalate
50
25
0
28- -04
20 r-04
12- -04
5-D -04
27- -04
Ma 5
14- y-05
6-N -05
29- -05
23- -06
16- -06
8-O 06
31- -06
25- -06
17- -07
9-S -07
2-D -07
24- -07
Ma 8
10- y-08
2-N -08
25- -08
19- -09
12- -09
-09
b-0
b-0
-
r
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Jun
ep
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Jan
Jul
Jan
Jul
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Sep
Ma
Ap
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Ma
Au
Fe
De
Au
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4-J
22-
18-
Since late 2006, Wikipedia has struggled with monetizing their platform in a sustainable way. In addition to their
monetization attempts, Wikipedia’s ability to increase the number of people participating by adding or editing content
has been severely limited.
Phase Analysis
tippingpointlabs.com
8.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Recommendations
tippingpointlabs.com
9.
New Media Life Cycle Analysis™
August 12, 2009
Glossary
Appendix
Terminology The New Media Life Cycle
Medium - A form of communication. The New Media Life Cycle™ is the brain child of
Tippingpoint Labs Chief Strategist, Andrew Davis.
Example: Blo&ing or video on demand.
It is a framework for analyzing new media with an
Platform - a framework for a medium’s emphasis on quality of content, user adoption and
application. demographic migration. The New Media Life
Example: The iPhone is a platform for the mobile Cycle™ Analysis is designed to put any given
application medium. Wordpress is a platform for blo&ing. subject (a channel, platform or medium) in context
Channel - The service provider of a medium. with the larger new media landscape.
Example: Scribd is a channel for document sharing. Designed specifically for Chief Marketing Officers
Blo&er.com is a channel for blo&ing. and marketing executives, the life cycle analysis is
Content - Medium expression. designed to help quickly and effectively understand
Example: A blog post is content delivered through the the new media landscape.
blo&ing medium.
tippingpointlabs.com 10.