Wikipedia is one of the poster children of the New Web. I use it every day. It's a constructive cure for boredom. However, I'm convinced it's an exception. Wikis manage knowledge in the same way that my desk manages paper. I can throw whatever I want on it and given enough time I can usually find something specific if I set out to search for it. Occasionally, I'll find something I didn't know was there. Sometimes, I can't find what I thought was there. If I find there's something I keep having to look for, I'll set it somewhere prominent. That works for a while, until the real estate of that prominent place becomes needed to make way for more crap. Eventually, there's just physically no way to fit anything else on my desk, so I spend a few hours going through everything and throwing out about 99% of what I, at one time, deemed "important." Repeat the process.Is there another way? A better way that doesn't require a constant maintenance effort on my part? I don't know. I haven't found it after 30 years.

Knowledge Management in a Nutshell

• Do you want a space where lots of people can easily put random crap on the web? Apache and SSH.
• Do you want a space where lots of people can easily edit other people's random crap? Wiki.
• Do you want a space where lots of people can easily edit other people's useful crap and be able to find it again? Hire someone to manage your content for you.

The bottom line is that systems don't manage content, people do.